KARACHI, June 27: The Sindh Health Minister, Shabbir Ahmed Qaimkhani, on Tuesday announced a raise of Rs3,000-plus in the stipend of nursing students enrolled with different public sector schools across the province.

Speaking at a meeting organized by the Sindh Nurses Association to celebrate upgradation of the nursing cadre at the Sindh level, the health minister said the government had chalked out an elaborate programme to bridge the wide ratio gap between the number of nurses and patients.

“It is with the very purpose that we are initiating an evening shift in the nursing schools being run by the Sindh government,” Qaimkhani said.

Enumerating nurses among the most essential component of any healthcare system, the minister reiterated the government's commitment to ensure the professional dignity of nurses.

He said it was with the very intention that perhaps for the first time in the province the service structure of nurses had been revised.

He said the pay scales of nurses had been improved and they under the latest arrangement would be directly inducted in grade 16 and would be promoted to higher grades in accordance with their professional and educational capacities as well as in accordance with their superiority.

The Health Secretary, Prof Naushad Shaikh, on the occasion, said that healthcare delivery had to be teamwork with each and every component being competent enough and capable to work in unison.

“Apart from quality training, they must be provided with a workable environment to perform in,” he said.

Elaborating this, he maintained that while the new service structures for nurses and paramedics had been announced by the provincial government, measures were under way to streamline and strengthen the service structure for doctors associated with provincial healthcare facilities.

The government is keen to provide job satisfaction to all those working at government healthcare facilities at varied levels and in different capacities, Mr Shaikh said.

The Nursing Superintendent of Civil Hospital Karachi, Ruby, and other senior professionals also spoke.

They appreciated the government's efforts of discouraging the trend among students of discontinuing their studies and seeking low paid jobs at private hospitals and clinics.—APP