New Nursing Faculty to be established

President Maithripala Sirisena assured that the government will provide required financial provisions immediately to establish the Nursing Faculty to award Nursing Degrees, which has been a long term demand.

He was speaking at a meeting with the Government Nursing Officers Association, held yesterday at the Presidential Secretariat. The meeting was held in line with the International Nurses Day falls on the 12th of May. The President of the Government Nursing Officers Association Saman Rathnapriya and the representatives of the nurses participated in this meeting.

They discussed about the establishment of the Nursing Degree Faculty, recruitment of Public Health Nurses and filling of the vacancies existing in the nursing service. It has been proposed to establish this Nursing Faculty affiliated to the University of Colombo. Rs. 2500mns have been allocated for this task from the budget 2016.

President Sirisena stated that he would give every support to take our health service forward as a more qualitative and stronger service.
He pointed out that there are only 31, 000 nurses in Sri Lanka while the requirement of nurses is 40, 000. Stating that the inability to carry out the service of the nurses efficiently is an issue, he pointed out the importance of implementing a focused program to fulfill this national requirement.

The President also drew his attention into the matter that when the unions make demands they focus only on the career needs. He pointed out the importance for them to present new ideas and proposals through their unions to achieve national goals.

Minister of Health and Nutrition Rajitha Senarathne and the Director General of Health Doctor Palitha Maheepala were among those participated in this meeting.