Wednesday March 5, 2014 ZUNO CONDEMNS CHILANGWA’S REMARKS ON NURSES The Zambia Union of Nurses Organisation (ZUNO) has condemned recent remarks about nurses made by Home Affairs Deputy Minister Nickson Chilangwa in Kawambwa. ZUNO President, Thom Yungana, said that Mr Chilangwa’s remarks should be condemned by all well meaning Zambians as the words could easily be understood as inciting violence against nurses and health workers who are working very hard under difficult conditions to provide the much needed health care to members of the community. During the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of the new district hospital in Kawambwa recently, Mr Chilangwa, who is also the area Member of Parliament, allegedly incited members of the community to start beating up nurses and other health workers found in Kawambwa town when they were supposed to be at their health stations. “Much as we appreciate Mr Chilangwa’s concerns about commitment to duty by nurses, we feel that his remarks were misplaced and should be condemned in the strongest terms. “If a nurse or midwife abandons her station without permission, the authorities have the right to revoke the provisions of the Public Service Disciplinary Code and Grievance Handling Procedure. “Resorting to violence against the nurses or any health worker is not the solution and should therefore be stopped with immediate effect otherwise ZUNO shall be left with no alternative but to encourage its members to stop working in areas or environments that are violence prone and communities that do not appreciate services being tendered by nurses,” Mr Yungana said. He said that nurses are currently overworked due to the obtaining critical shortage of nurses and midwives, a situation that has been compounded by government’s unpopular decision to dismiss nurses and midwives instead of addressing their plight of poor salaries and conditions of services. He called on well meaning Zambians and organisations to join in condemning perpetrators of violence in health institutions and communities. “ZUNO is disappointed with the amount of threats and intimidation of nurses and midwives coming from some government officials who are supposed to play an active role in guaranteeing security of health care providers, particularly nurses and midwives who have of late been highly demotivated by the government’s recent unfortunate action,” Mr Yungana said. Ends.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 10:04:29 +0000
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