KARACHI: Protesting against the alleged apathy of the government towards their long-standing demands, hundreds of nurses from several government hospitals in Sindh staged a sit-in outside the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday.

Similar protests, said organisers of the demonstration, had been held in various districts of Sindh, where nurses of all cadres raised their voice for their demands.

Holding placards and chanting slogans for their demands, the nurses of all cadres female and male protested for various demands, including provision of health and risk allowances and time-scale promotions.

`We are appointed on grade-16 and are retired without any promotion,said Aijaz Kaleri, a member of the joint action committee comprising two leading associations of nurses, while speaking to Dawn.

The protesters said other provinces and the federation paid Rs10,000 as health allowance, and Rs9,000 as risl( allowance to nurses, which the Sindh government would not pay.

Besides, said Mr Kaleri, other provinces paid thrice the stipend to student nurses, while in Sindh it was Rs6,800.

`We should be given medical and teaching allowances accordingly as it is being paid in other provinces.

Besides, nurses should be represented in the health policy of the government, he said.

The protesters said the posts of superintendents of nurses be upgraded as well.

They also demanded for provision of uniforms, mess allowance, and staff incentives equal to other provinces.Official figures show scores of government hospitals which include tertiary and teaching healthcare facilities have poor provision of nurses in Sindh.

`There are only 3,000 nurses to take care of millions of patients in those public-sector hospitals, which shows how pathetic is the government`s policy in its claim to provide quality healthcare facilities to the people,` admitted an official in the provincial health ministry.

The protesters said they had recommended to the government to add 1,000 more nurses to public hospitals to improve their quality of healthcare facilities.

They said most basic health units and rural health centres had no nurses, while the tertiary hospitals, like Benazir Bhutto Hospital in Larkana, had just 28 nurses where they needed to be more than 200.Leaders of the protesting nurses said they were attending to the emergencies in government hospitals while arrangements had been made to make sure that routine activities at the hospitals were not disturbed during the protest.

However, they said their protest would continue till their demands were met.

`Our peaceful sit-in will continue till our demands are met,` said Mr Kaleri.

During the protest, additional health secretary Aslam Pechuho reached the press club to hold talks with protesters. However, the nurses refused to meet him saying `he had no knowledge and no intention to resolve our problems` `PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari raises voice against injustice in other provinces. He should also look into what his own party`s government is doing in Sindh,` said a member of the joint action committee.