editorial
Heroic effort put in by nurses
Reward them for their services
Following the astronomical rise in the number of dengue patients, four hospitals—Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, Mitford Hospital, Mugda Medical College and Hospital, and Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital—requested the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) for additional nurses. The DGHS, in response, deployed around 200 nurses on deputation to meet the needs of the four hospitals on an emergency basis.
The deployment has paid great dividends so far in terms of providing some relief to the hospitals and their patients. However, the nurses themselves have not received any remuneration or overtime bill for the work as there is no established system for those. Moreover, the nurses, since being deployed to these hospitals, have had to face significant difficulty in commuting to their newly designated workstations, away from their homes and regular places of work. Therefore, it is only fair that these nurses are duly rewarded for their great effort.
We understand that the existing rules and regulations do not allow additional payment for these nurses—since they are government employees. However, just as they were willing to make an exception to help people in a moment of national crisis, we believe the government should also make an exception and compensate these nurses for stepping up and serving their fellow citizens the way that they have.