Nurses threaten strike

Nurses at Rashid Hospital, complaining of being overworked, are demanding a pay increase and have threatened to strike. The nurses say their salaries do not reflect their increasing workload and are demanding a 12 per cent rise to match the pay of their colleagues at the Rashid trauma centre next door. "We would like to resolve this peacefully without resorting to desperate measures such as going on strike, but if nothing happens then staff from various public hospitals will walk out," said Mangi Dres, a senior staff nurse on the hospital's Ward 2. Mr Dres said the nurses are eager to negotiate with the hospital.

"We are just as busy and overworked as the nurses at the trauma centre. The difference is they received a pay increase and we didn't. People should know that the overwhelming majority of trauma patients who are in a coma, confused or still critically ill are moved to Ward 2." The starting salary for nurses at the Rashid is Dh3,500 (US$950) a month, while for their colleagues at the trauma centre it is Dh6,000. Some private hospitals pay considerably more.

The hospital has 1,000 nurses, of whom 250 work in the trauma unit. The hospital has a total of 2,450 staff, including 450 doctors. An average shift for a nurse is 12 hours. However, some claim they average 14 hours a day due to heavy workloads. "Long hours are part of the job. The difference is we don't get paid for working overtime and this goes on every day," said Mr Dres, who has worked as a nurse in Dubai for seven years.

A spokesman for the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) said investments were planned for the health system, but declined to say whether there would be a pay rise for nurses. However, the authority was hoping to alleviate pressure on staff by bringing in more nurses from the Philippines. The UAE, like many countries around the world, is facing a severe shortage of nurses. Last month the health authority raised salaries at Rashid Hospital Trauma Centre, the region's busiest trauma unit, in line with private hospitals, according to hospital officials.

Walid bin Falah al Mansouri, the director general of the trauma centre, said: "We have had to considerably raise salaries to retain staff." He said the trauma centre, which will see 380,000 patients this year, was "one of the best in the world". Doctors and nurses, he said, were performing well, "but we need to hire more to alleviate the pressure". One nurse said: "We like our jobs and what we do. We don't want to strike or be forced to look for work elsewhere but we should get equal pay."

She said the workload was increasing due to the expanding population. Dr Moen Fikri, a clinical director at the Rashid hospital, said he believed "a shortage of qualified experts will be the biggest problem in the region". His medical staff were being pushed "to the edge" by the rising number of emergency cases. Last month, Rashid hospital was accredited by Joint Commission International, which recognised it as being in line with international standards of excellence.

"We won this accreditation through heavily investing in staff and equipment and providing the public with the highest level of service at our hospital and this example should be used by other medical centres in the UAE," said Dr Haider al Yousef, head of the transition department at Rashid Hospital. @Email:shafez@thenational.ae