Nurses reluctant to go north

The authorities in the north are facing a serious problem in finding an adequate number of nurses to treat the IDPs in Vavuniya, since the allocated nurses have refused to assume duties there due to fear.

Chairman of Government Nursing Officers’ Association (GNOU) Saman Rathnapriya told The Nation that even though 150 and 110 nurses respectively, were given appointment letters to assume duties in the east and north, only 113 have accepted their letters of appointment to the east and 25 to the north so far.

“The main reason for their reluctance is fear. In a way their fears are legitimate. Nevertheless, they are duty bound to take care of patients country wide, irrespective of whether they are posted to Colombo or Jaffna,” he said. Read more ...