Nurses on an island wide strike on July 2

Nurses’ trade unions have decided to launch an island wide strike on July 2 calling on the government to address 11 demands including addressing issues related to salary anomalies, stop the shortening of the duration of certain medical degrees and the re-enforcement of the nurses’ council.



Head of the All Ceylon Nurses Association, M.M.S.P. Mediwatte said that although various actions was being taken by the nurses to get the authorities to address these issues without hindering the patients, the government had not paid any attention to them. Therefore, he said the only alternative is to launch an island wide strike.

Mediwatte said that government should be held responsible for the inconvenience caused to the patients and that the short term solutions given by the government have only compounded the issues in the nursing sector. He said there was a huge disparity between various grades in the country’s nursing sector and that issues in the administration have been caused by the government’s decision to grant service extensions to retired nurses while also appointing them as health services directors.