Wittaya promises action on nurse allowances

The move came after over two thousand nurses from across the country gathered yesterday before the Public Health Ministry to call on the minister to review the fixedallowance structure for rural nurses as they received less than doctors.

They also asked the minister to make all 6,000 nurses now in temporary employment into government officials so they could develop their careers and improve the quality of their lives.

Wittaya said he had told ministry permanent secretary Dr Prat Boonyawongvirot to treat the issue as urgent and come up with a response to the request from the Rural Nurses Club within a month.

He said he would bring up the issue with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Office of the Civil Service Commission and the committee responsible for setting the target for governments officials. He expected the process would take a month.