10 Mar 2014

More than 100 nurses in Vanuatu will no longer be paid

7:05 pm on 10 March 2014

More than 100 contract nurses at Port Vila Central hospital in Vanuatu have received a letter saying that they will no longer be paid, apparently because the Health Ministry is short of money.

The interim president of the Vanuatu Nurses Association, Anne Pakoa, says she has also received reports from nurses at other health centres around the country who also haven't received their salaries or have had them cut.

Ms Pakoa says those nurses have not received termination letters and are still in work.

She says that some have not received salaries for months and cannot afford to send their children to school.

" First of all, if Ministry of Health does not have any financing to pay for the nurses on contract and now that they're recruting and training 200 nurses, what are doing? Where are we going to get the finance from to pay for 200 nurses after 3 years if we cannot find finance to pay for these nurses on contract?

Anne Pakoa says it's not the first time contract nurses have not been paid and she's waiting to hear back from the Prime Minister about the matter.