Nurses strike again?

Say action was against ‘intimidation to their duty’ by family health officials

Nurses threatened to strike from today

Hardly a few days since the calling-off of trade union action by nurses, another nurses’ union had threatened to strike starting today against what it called an ‘intimidation to their duty’ by family health officials.

Hardly a few days passed since the calling off of trade union action by nurses, when another nurses’ trade union threatens trade union action starting from today against what they called an ‘intimidation to their duty’ by family health officials.

The President of the All Ceylon Nurses’ Union, Gamini Kumarasinghe said family health officers had begun signing arrivals and departures of duty in a wrong manner avoiding signing in the book, ‘General 18’ as required by the administrative regulations.

“Normally, the nurses, paramedical staff and supporting staff of the health service were required to sign their arrival for duty and departure in the common form known as ‘General 18.’ Accordingly, if these health staff members failed to sign on the cor-

Family health officers had begun signing arrivals and departures of duty in a wrong manner avoiding signing in the book, ‘General 18’ as required by the administrative regulations

rect form, their arrival or departure was not accepted under the administrative regulations,” Mr. Kumarasinghe said.

He charged that there were in- stances where family health officers had started to sign in a different document bypassing the accepted guidelines after the protest against giving midwifery training to nurses. The true objective behind this move was to avoid the family health officers being administered by Matrons who were naturally nurses and the ‘General 18’ was maintained by them.

Mr. Kumarasinghe accused directors of the Kurunegala and Kalutara General Hospitals for supporting this move and added refraining to sign the arrival and departure by a public servant on the correct book or form could be con- sidered as taking leave without permission.

Mr. Kumarasinghe requested, Health Secretary Dr. Nihal Jayatilaka to take immediate steps to prevent this disturbing situation at hospitals as lives of patients were at risk due to the arbitrary action by family health officials.

Refraining to sign the arrival and departure by a public servant on the correct book or form could be considered as taking leave without permission