Good news for nurses as the increase in their pay will be effective from the 24th of this month.
Permanent Secretary for Health Dr. James Fong highlighted this when asked on when the nurses are getting a raise in their pay as it was budgeted for in the 2023/2024 national budget.
He says this will include consolidated allowances and environmental allowances for those nurses in the maritime and those in isolated settings.
He says the adjustment includes a formula to recognise years of service, increases across the board with step ups in salary so that the baseline entry level will go up one more step and it includes a retention allowance.
The Permanent Secretary further says all these recommendations came from a working group that includes the Fiji Nursing Association, senior nurses in the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Civil Service and other stakeholders.
He says nurses will continue to resign because it is part of a global exodus and some are leaving because the salary is 4 to 5 times higher and the Ministry cannot compete with that.
Dr. Fong further says what we need to do as a nation is focus on retention, as well as focusing on our training and retraining programs.
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