Extra Fiji nurses for Golan

Nasik Swami
Saturday, June 29, 2013

THE Health Ministry has confirmed it will be sending more nurses to work in the troubled Israeli-Syria border.

Nursing director Silina Waqa-Ledua said they were eyeing six to eight additional nurses to join the six who have already started work in hospitals there.

Mrs Waqa-Ledua said she was told that the nurses were most likely to leave Fiji towards the end of next month or early August.

"They are going to work in the hospitals, not in the military. We have taken people from relevant areas like operating theatres because they are just going to manage the hospitals. They are not like the generic peacekeeping force, they just manage the hospital," Mrs Waqa-Ledua said.

She said from the package given, the nurses would maintain their normal salary paid by the ministry but would be give an additional allowance of $F100 a day.

Mrs Waqa-Ledua said nurses deployed to the Golan chose to take up the mission, following a call for expressions of interest.

"We didn't pick it out of the hat. We just announced an expression of interest and the interest continued to build up.

"So we have taken it that it was a matter of choice so anybody who has made an application, we have taken it that it is more or less their commitment to go and serve."