Health sector End tug-of-war

In a previous editorial we predicted that a showdown is imminent between doctors and nurses over a Health Ministry decision to assign new ranks to the latter which the doctors perceived as a slight to their own standing and position. According to a new Nurses' Minute a nurse who presently functions in a special grade or class would be raised to the post of supervisor or manager. Doctors say according to the list of duties under these new positions nurses will be given leeway to act in an arbitrary manner even countermanding the orders and directives of doctors and medical staff. Nurses have stood their ground saying these were only titles and their roles and functions would remain the same.

True to our prediction doctors have downed their tools stemming from this dispute. According to a front page news item in a national daily, doctors at the Negombo hospital have boycotted work yesterday with some 1,000 OPD patients seeking treatment being turned away. What is more, the GMOA has also warned that the boycott could spread to other hospitals raising the prospect of a shut down of all public health services.

We also said that very soon there is bound to be a clash of egos between the two groups with the doctors asserting their authority and the nurses resisting commands. And so it was in this instance. According to the news item a nurse has refused to comply with an internal transfer ordered by the Medical Superintendent on the basis that the latter had no administrative power to effect transfers. She has stood her ground claiming that only the Matron or Nursing Director could make the transfer. The end result - the poor patients are caught in the cross fire and are made to suffer.

Also like in the past this strike too is staged based on a minor issue that could have been resolved through quiet negotiation. After all the protagonists are professionals or those with learning who are expected to conduct themselves exemplarily and not as common Trade Unionists. The Nurses should know their own position in the equation and avoid a situation of the tail wagging the dog. They should not start a turf war in the hospital administration assuming for themselves the role of superiors. Nurses have had their way for too long with the backing of powerful trade union bosses so much so they have become a law unto themselves in recent times. The strikes resorted by the nursing fraternity at the drop of a hat endangering the lives of patients who they are supposed care with loving kindness have today distorted their once hallowed image as true nightingales. The GMOA on its part should refrain from precipitate action causing hardship to the patients merely over internal administration battles. They ought to act with more maturity as befit their reputation and role as men and women with the healing touch and abide by the hypocritic oath.

The country's health sector was one of the State bodies which was perennially plagued by strikes in recent times. Thankfully the public had been spared this scenario for some time. However just when they thought that all problems in the health sector had sorted themselves out we have the spectre of strikes raising their ugly head again. The Health Ministry should step in without delay to straighten out matters in the Hospital administration and bring together the warring factions. What is at stake is the lives of patients. The country does not wish to see empty forlorn hospital premises like they frequently used to do on TV in the not too distant past when either doctors and nurses or both groups downed their tools for real or imagined grievances.

The Health Ministry should partly take the blame for the mess it had created by providing ammunition to the doctors and nurses to engage in battle. Couldn't someone in authority at the Ministry foresee the possibilities of this happening under the present scheme. It is still not too late to resolve matters. What is needed is to bring the warring parties together and explore the possibility of compromise. The Doctors with their superior learning and intellect we are sure would not be intimidated by mere titles or nomenclature assigned to nurses, to resort to such drastic action as strikes, placing the lives of patients at risk. The public awaits a solution to this imbroglio in the health sector and sooner the healthier.