Simione Tuvuki 
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong, has called for patience in the improvement of nurses’ welfare in the country.
This follows the provision of $11.6 million to cater for the upgrade of nurses’ salaries and overtime in the 2023–2024 National Budget.
Dr Fong emphasizes that this is an ongoing process, and they have a working group to mitigate the issues pertaining to the welfare of nurses.
“Whatever we are going to do in the initial part is not going to be the end of it; there would be an ongoing process of negotiation to ensure that in right-sizing the remuneration packages and all the other bits that are related to the workforce, we are going to get the impact of mitigating some of the workforce issues that we are currently facing.”
Dr Fong says the objective is to undertake measures beyond salaries alone.
He says they also hope to alleviate the gaps in service caused by the exodus of nurses.
The Permanent Secretary says the working group includes representatives from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Civil Service, and the Fiji Nursing Association.
