• Only 1 nursing batch undergoing training, despite 3 batches being the requirement: ACNU 

Although there should be three batches of students receiving training in nursing schools at any given time, only one batch is currently receiving training in the 17 nursing schools across the Island, and the same will therefore have a serious impact on the requirement of nurses, claimed the All Ceylon Nurses' Union (ACNU).

Speaking to The Daily Morning, ACNU President, S.B. Mediwatte said: “There are 17 nursing schools in the country. Usually, there should be three batches of students in them, but currently, there is only one batch which will pass out in 2024. When those students pass out, there will be no students in the nursing schools. It takes three years for one batch to complete the training and pass out. It means that even if a batch is recruited tomorrow, they will be passing out only in 2026.”

As there is only one batch of students at present, he said that the human and physical resources at nursing schools are not being utilised effectively. “The lecturers, who used to train three batches of students, have to train only one batch now, but they should be paid as usual. There are many other resources that are not being used effectively due to this issue. We have written to Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella and all the other authorities, but they have not yet paid attention to this serious issue,” he said.

Speaking further, Mediwatte said that more than 2,000 nurses have left the country over the past two years, and added that this situation would become worse in the future as the Government continues to delay the recruitment of students to nursing schools, as well as trained nurses to hospitals. “Currently, all hospitals including leading hospitals such as the National Hospital in Colombo and the Colombo South Kalubowila Teaching Hospital are running short of nurses. This shortage has arisen when there was anyway a lack of more than 10,000 nurses according to the latest requirements,” he added.

The country's free health sector is currently in a state of crisis for several reasons including the shortage of nurses, medical officers and specialists, and pharmaceutical drugs and other medical supplies which has arisen due to the prevailing economic crisis. Despite the issues, the Government has focused on reducing its expenditure through various means such as allowing public servants including nurses to obtain no pay leave for a period of five years, and to leave for other countries for both higher education and employment, and by suspending the recruitments to the public sector, which many parties have said will aggravate the issues in the health sector.