Network of contract nurses threatens mass resignation

>> The network of contract nurses working at state hospitals has threatened to resign en masse if the government refuses to list them as civil servants, the network said in a release yesterday.

“If the government fails to understand the importance of this issue, I believe that on September 30 a number of people will quit,” said Rongthiwa Panomkae, a nurse at Roi Et Hospital who is the facilitator of the network of contract nurses in the northeastern provinces.

The network of temporarily hired nurses was scheduled to meet today to discuss how to proceed if the government fails to increase the number of civil servant nurses.

“Although the Public Health Ministry’s management said they would help, those are just words. They said they would list an additional 3,000 nurses as civil servants this year, but those positions were previously agreed. We want new positions that we have been waiting for a long time,” said Ms Rongthiwa.

“We have been working at state hospital for low pay. But we also want a career path and job security.”

The network has called for its members to quit en masse effective Oct 1.

The network of contract nurses or nurses who are temporarily hired under different categories was against the cabinet’s decision on May 9 which disapproved the listing of 10,992 contract nurses as civil servants over a three-year period.

Contract nurses are hired by state hospitals. They are not entitled to benefits and welfare that civil servants receive.

The network yesterday released a statement asking for the cabinet to reconsider the decision to list 10,992 contract nurses as permanent civil servants.

Moreover, the network asked the Public Health Ministry to fill 11,213 vacant positions under the ministry this year.

According to the Public Health Ministry, 2,621 of the total vacancies are in nursing.

Public Health Minister Piyasakon Sakonsatayathorn earlier said the ministry had a limited number of vacant posts to recruit new civil servants.

He said the Public Health Ministry has around 400,000 civil servants with vacancies accounting for around 5%.

At present the ministry has a total of 100,855 nurses, with 87,252 listed as civil servants. The rest are hired under different contracts.

Sopon Mekthon, permanent secretary to the Public Health Ministry, said this week the ministry will hold talks with nurses nationwide via video conference.

“I have asked every agency involved to consider their headcounts,” he said.