Nawik urges govt to facilitate demands

PRESIDENT of the PNG Nurses Association Steven Nawik has called on the Government to facilitate their concerns in a diplomatic way.
Nawik told The National that nurses were employees of the Government and as an appropriate authority, it should listen to them for solutions.
“Government must understand that nurses are the backbone in health delivery. You see the nurse when you visit the primary healthcare, you see the nurse when a new citizen of this country is born and it is a nurse who looks after you at the ward, discharges you or prepares you to be taken the mortuary.
“I’m not asking for sympathy from the Government. We are a profession, that’s what we swore under the oath to perform,” Nawik said.
“Had they been serious about this issue, in the first few months of this year some arrangements would have been put in place.
“From day one we knew that there was no budget allocation but we kept an open mind that any arrangement that the Government came up with we would agree.” Nawik said actions by nurses in the National Capital District and other centres were reflection of the 100 per cent support for the resolutions of the union.
“It’s just a slowdown to give notices to the Government that nurses are very serious about this issue.
“If nothing positive transpires for us, it will be total withdrawal of services throughout the country.
“All we are asking the Government now is be very positive and let’s approach it this year and resolve it,” he said. “I’m not prepared to roll this task over to 2017. That would be injustice to our nurses.,” Nawik said
“We were confronted with a lot of challenges, but we have maintained our loyalty to the Government.
“We have been performing our roles and responsibilities, but we are now being forced into this situation, because the Government has not honoured its obligations.
“All we are waiting for is positive outcome, give us a date of implementation and then we will resume duties.”