Retention of nurses is an issue that Government is trying to address.
While speaking at the 63rd Fiji Nursing Association annual general meeting in Sigatoka, Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said an in-depth study would be carried out to find out areas where the Ministry of Health were losing nurses.
“We are going to do an in-depth study and look at which areas where we are losing people, where maybe because of retention issues and then the other issue the scarcity of skill sets,” he said.
“At one point we had a problem with midwives so we need to be able to recognise that.”
He said the same study would be carried out in other government departments.
“In the same way across the board we are also looking at specific skill sets of Government. We have some very good economists, some climate change specialists, they are with us for four or five years and have had overseas training, they’re very good at their job and then suddenly some regional operator comes along and takes them away at four times the pay.
“We are not saying we will increase everybody’s salary in that area by four times, but we are looking at what are some of the things that we can do.
“There is a need to recognise that there is a retention issue.”
