Proposed merger of nursing directorate protested in Gazipur

A protest march and a rally were held yesterday on the Dhaka-Kishoreganj highway in Gazipur's Kapasia upazila in protest against the proposal to abolish the Directorate General of Nursing and Midwifery (DGNM) and merge it with another department.

The protesters also pressed for the implementation of an eight-point demand.

The demonstrations were organised outside the Kapasia Upazila Health Complex at Targaon intersection around 12:00pm, joined by the teachers and students of Syeda Zohra Tajuddin Nursing College and nurses of the upazila health complex.

Their demands include forming a National Nursing Commission, ensuring promotion and supernumerary promotion for nurses from Grade 9 to Grade 4, and upgrading the posts of nursing supervisor and nursing instructor from Grade 10 to Grade 9.

Other demands are formulating recruitment rules and salary structure for private healthcare and nursing-midwifery educational institutions, providing risk allowance to nurse-midwifery and cancelling the forcibly imposed new nursing uniform.

Lecturers of Syeda Zohra Tajuddin Nursing College, Mohammad Mohiuddin, Zakir Hossain and Reena Akhter and Senior Staff Nurse of Kapasia Upazila Health Complex Kamruzzaman Pradhan, among others, addressed the rally.

The speakers stressed that the nursing and midwifery profession is a key pillar in saving lives. Therefore, instead of abolishing or merging the directorate, it should be strengthened and modernised.

They sought the government's intervention for the speedy implementation of their demands.