Prayut tells nurses to stop protesting over poor pay and working conditions

[webfact]

Prayut tells nurses to stop protesting over poor pay and working conditions
By PRATCH RUJIVANAROM
THE NATION

 

About 300 nurses gather in the yard in front of Phumin Temple in Nan province yesterday to press their demand that the government recruit more nurses as permanent civil servants.

 

BANGKOK: -- PRIME MINISTER General Prayut Chan-o-cha responded yesterday to ongoing protests by nurses, saying the allocation of civil service posts that they are demanding must comply with the workforce reformation plan every five to 10 years.

 

Prayut said every ministry had to follow the rules in enrolling new workers and had to manage their vacant positions first before asking for more staff.

 

He also urged the nurses not to protest and make the issue political.

 

Nurses have pledged to continue their protest amid complaints about understaffing, tough working conditions and unfair salaries. The Public Health Ministry has asked them to be patient, stating that nursing positions are being allocated.

 

Hundreds of nurses in Nan demonstrated yesterday to show solidarity with government-employed nurses campaigning for more permanent civil servant positions and fairer benefits.

 

Pattanaphong Wongbunyanuwej, a representative of the Nan nurses, said the group gathered in a symbolic gesture to raise their voices to the government, urging it to allocate more civil servant positions and improve the working conditions and benefits for nurses. “We want the government to understand the hardship of nurses, as we are working extraordinarily long hours with unfair remuneration, so we gather today to show our demands,” Pattanaphong said.

 

Meanwhile, the Temporary Employee Professional Nurse Network fan page on Facebook invited temporary nurses to fill in a questionnaire to survey the number who intend to resign if the proposal to increase civil servant position for nurses is rejected by the government.

 

Dr Tassana Boontong, president of the Thailand Nursing and Midwifery Council, stressed that the civil servant position is very important for a nurse, as it can guarantee career stability and provide proper health benefits for their family.

 

“This problem [the nurses unable to be enrolled as civil servants] causes 48 per cent of new nurses to resign after the first year at work. In the second year, 25 per cent of those remaining follow suit. How can we have enough nurses in the system, as we cannot save them in the system in the first place?” Tassana said.

 

“Our research showed that the nurses worked up to 37 shifts per month, but their payment is low compared to the doctors. There is also not enough welfare for the nurses if they are injured or die due to their work.”

 

She said that the performance-based pay for nurses was almost 28 times lower than for doctors, even though they work harder. In case of an accident, nurses receive very little benefits to compensate for their loss. “This is a good time for the policy makers to understand nurses’ hardship. They give up their energy, time and personal lives to take care of the patients and look after our health, so they should have job security and better welfare in return,” she said.

 

Tassana said the Nursing and Midwifery Council had proposed 10,992 civil servant positions for nurses over three years. This meant that only 3,662 positions were sought from the government per year, which was not a large amount.

 

However, she said she understood that the Public Health Ministry was working hard to manage the vacant positions for nurses to meet the proposed positions and asked fellow nurses to be patient during this allocation.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30315306

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-05-16

[ezzra]

 

Not sure about these protesting nurses, but when I go to Bumroongrad

and other big hospital I see like 7-10 nurses staffing one doctor's

position and while 2-3 are working, the rest are just loafing about.....

[jaiyen]

Nurses are essential in every country, every city and town.  They have always been over worked and under paid, because they care about people. Not like the government who tells them to stop complaining and carry on being poor with no benefits.  But its different for the PM and his mates. He goes to a nice private hospital at the tax payers expense.

[BigBadGeordie]

3 minutes ago, ezzra said:

 

Not sure about these protesting nurses, but when I go to Bumroongrad

and other big hospital I see like 7-10 nurses staffing one doctor's

position and while 2-3 are working, the rest are just loafing about.....

I think, given your comment, you may have not grasped that this protest is about public sector nursing, not private sector.

 

The majority shareholders in the hospital are Bangkok Dusit Medical Services, Bangkok Insurance Public Company Limited, Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited and the Sophonpanich family, one of Thailand’s leading business families.

[jaiyen]

Just now, ezzra said:

 

Not sure about these protesting nurses, but when I go to Bumroongrad

and other big hospital I see like 7-10 nurses staffing one doctor's

position and while 2-3 are working, the rest are just loafing about.....

Glad you have money to waste going there. Thats why its so expensive.  You are paying for all the extra staff.  Rural hospitals supply the same medical services without the luxuries at a fraction of the price.  I have been a few times and service was excellent and so cheap.  The nurses need to be treated fairly.  " You cant live without them "

[yellowboat]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Dr Tassana Boontong, president of the Thailand Nursing and Midwifery Council, stressed that the civil servant position is very important for a nurse, as it can guarantee career stability and provide proper health benefits for their family.

The good general is all about stability, in fact, that is his mantra.  Not granting those who care for the sick stability would be thoughtless and cruel.

[colinneil]

1 minute ago, jaiyen said:

Glad you have money to waste going there. Thats why its so expensive.  You are paying for all the extra staff.  Rural hospitals supply the same medical services without the luxuries at a fraction of the price.  I have been a few times and service was excellent and so cheap.  The nurses need to be treated fairly.  " You cant live without them "

 

Well said, you are 100% correct.

The PM lives in la-la land. He doesnt give a rats a..e about nurses, or for that matter anything that does not make him look like he is doing a good job.

[worgeordie]

I am alright Jack.

regards worgeordie

[chakatee]

13 minutes ago, ezzra said:

 

Not sure about these protesting nurses, but when I go to Bumroongrad

and other big hospital I see like 7-10 nurses staffing one doctor's

position and while 2-3 are working, the rest are just loafing about.....

This article and protest is about nurses in government hospitals so your comment is irrelevant

[r136dg]

That headline vs what those poor, hardworking people endure is XXXXXXX depressing!

[dcnx]

7 minutes ago, jaiyen said:

Glad you have money to waste going there. Thats why its so expensive.  You are paying for all the extra staff.  Rural hospitals supply the same medical services without the luxuries at a fraction of the price.  I have been a few times and service was excellent and so cheap.  The nurses need to be treated fairly.  " You cant live without them "

A rural hospital is where a very well educated doctor told my (ex) brother-in-law to start smoking to help with his asthma.

 

Another doctor at the same rural hospital told my (ex) mother-in-law to prepare to die and to get her affairs in order. She had less than 12 months to live with stage 4 liver cancer. Not only is she still alive 8 years later but she didn't have cancer to begin with. RAM in Chiang Mai figured out she only had an infection.

 

 

[rkidlad]

Yea! And if you're hungry, then eat cake, you horrible lot. 

 

Making it political, too. Do these nurses have no shame?

[mtls2005]

PRIME MINISTER General Prayut Chan-o-cha responded yesterday to ongoing protests by nurses, saying the allocation of civil service posts that they are demanding must comply with the workforce reformation plan every five to 10 years.

 

 

1.) I'm sure the military will be subject to an "allocation of posts" which will comply with the "workforce reformation plan".

 

2.) Any form of protest must be put down, if the Junta wishes to remain in power.

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2017 by mtls2005

[Smarter Than You]

Sorry girls, spent the money on submarines.

 

BTW -- Fairer allocation of government revenue is why PTP continue to win every election held and the old guard will always have to rely on coups!

[DM07]

In a civilized country, you have to pay your
teachers
doctors and nurses
fire- and policemen
soldiers
well!
Not your generals!


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[dinsdale]

"He also urged the nurses not to protest and make the issue political."  We have no money for you, or teachers, or schools. We need money to buy weapons. Weapons first, then money for our pockets and our friends pockets, then society. WE ARE MILITARY.

[Knocker33]

Go girls. Most of them deserve extra.

Strange how shabbily nurses are treated in a lot of places in the world considering your life may be in their hands

[British Bulldog]

"The Public Health Ministry has asked them to be patient ..." Ha Ha Ha !  But seriously, does anybody know what the average salary of a nurse is ? I drive from Vientiane to Khon Kaen University Hospital for treatment and I have to say, they treat you like Gold there (although I do pay a few extra bob to get up the front of the line ...) but with a total of 3 Hospital stays, over collectively 3-4 weeks and over 7 inpatient days,  ... they are brilliant and probably worth a lot more than they really do get !

[helloagain]

So how much do the nurses earn ? 

[darksidedog]

It's very easy for a fat cat with plenty to tell people not to moan. Let Prayut try to live on a nurses salary for a month and see if he appreciates their hardship then.

[Cadbury]

There is only so much public money to go around so the nurses need to understand that a military government bloated with generals have different budget priorities such as tanks, submarines, new jet fighters and sophisticated weaponry from Israel.

They can't seem to think far enough ahead to realise that in any armed conflict there will be casualties requiring nursing.

[TheFishman1]

Easy to say question where did he get 9 million dollars General pay here really good TIT

[YetAnother]

"He also urged the nurses not to protest and make the issue political."; what is political about this ? that guy is paranoid

[wvavin]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

".......group gathered in a symbolic gesture..."

Nobody would bothers and why bothers?

[TomAikins]

Wouldn't it make sense to include a pertinent fact such as what the nurses actually receive for a salary in an article like this? A journalist would include a fact like this but since it's the Nation (and it could just as easily be the Post) you can forget about it. The level of news writing and copy editing at both papers is atrociously bad rendering them, in my opinion, unreadable. They're not as bad as the awful translations that ThaiVisa publishes as news articles that come from Thai news sources. And this, of course, begs the question, are there any journalists at ThaiVisa? I think the answer to that is pretty obvious. 

[yasorab]

What a complete idiot this man truly is !

Sent from my SM-J120H using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[mtls2005]

3 minutes ago, Cadbury said:

There is only so much public money to go around so the nurses need to understand that a military government bloated with generals have different budget priorities such as tanks, submarines, new jet fighters and sophisticated weaponry from Israel.

They can't seem to think far enough ahead to realise that in any armed conflict there will be casualties requiring nursing.

 

Ironically, a volunteer nurse,  Kamonkade Akkahad, was one of six unarmed Thai citizens who were killed by Army snipers from a perch on the BTS tracks ( where they could pick off innocents with ease ) at Wat Pathum Wanaram on May 19, 2010.

[maoro2013]

Happiness for everyone, except contract nurses.

[theguyfromanotherforum]

56 minutes ago, ezzra said:

 

Not sure about these protesting nurses, but when I go to Bumroongrad

and other big hospital I see like 7-10 nurses staffing one doctor's

position and while 2-3 are working, the rest are just loafing about.....

 

You and whoever gave you like for this post deserve a medal.

 

[SOUTHERNSTAR]

Mr junta please continue to undermine your only support base - the lazy civil servants and I promise you will have an early retirement. Of all the civil servants medical staff however work the hardest and take the least bribes, yet they are paid the worst.