MORE than 50 nurses working at the country’s biggest public hospital have allegedly not been paid for at least three months, it has emerged.
The senior expatriate nurses, who have worked for the Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC) for more than 10 years, claim that despite struggling to make ends meet they have been showing up to work every day.
Most of them are the sole breadwinners of their families, with their spouses having either lost their jobs or not being paid due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
The nurses include men and women who work in various departments at SMC, the Psychiatric Hospital, the Jidhafs Maternity Hospital, Muharraq Geriatric Centre and health centres.
They told the GDN that after raising the issue with their department heads, they were referred to the Health Ministry and then to the Civil Service Bureau (CSB), which last week was renamed as the Civil Service Agency.
“It seems to be a recurring pattern over the past three years,” said an Indian nurse, requesting anonymity.
“We would get paid suddenly after three or four months; we hope the same will happen this time as well, but this is not helping us as we are struggling to survive.
“Due to Covid-19 impacting businesses, husbands of a number of female nurses have lost their jobs, some are facing pay cuts while others are going unpaid.
“In most of the cases, families are stuck here due to the travel restrictions or lack of flights.”
The GDN reported of a similar situation in 2019 when 60 nurses had claimed their contracts were not renewed, besides not being paid.
However, within a month of the GDN highlighting the nurses’ ordeal, their dues were cleared and contracts renewed.
Claims of unpaid wages to 55 nurses surfaced in 2018 as well, with the matter being settled subsequently.
The nurses earn between BD450-BD500, with most of it used to repay loans, rent and school expenses.
“Landlords don’t buy the excuse that we are unpaid, while neither the schools nor the banks are giving us any exemption.
“We have no money and our meagre savings are drained. We have colleagues who are unable to feed their children and we had to pitch in with financial support.
“The CSB told us that its server/computer system is down; we wish they just give it a thought as to how we are surviving.”
Adding to their woes, a number of the nurses are reportedly suffering from health conditions due to the continuous use of personal protective equipment (PPE) as they attend to coronavirus patients.
Representational image
“Our families, especially our children are suffering, while we give our full support to the government as frontliners risking our lives.
“We all are doing our duty in Covid-19 wards but many of us have breathing issues after continuously wearing facemasks.
“We are under immense stress with the risk of getting infected and infecting our families and the financial situation is adding to this.
“This stress is not healthy for us and the patients we care for, and we hope someone can address our concerns.”
The starting wage for nurses at SMC is around BD340 which increases to between BD600 and BD800 with allowances based on grades.
SMC is one of three government hospitals in Bahrain and was established in 1975, with a bed capacity of approximately 1,200.
The hospital receives an average of 900 to 1,000 patients a day and employs more than 2,000 physicians, nurses and workers, of which over 70pc are reportedly expatriates.
The GDN has approached the Health Ministry and the CSB for comments.
raji@gdn.com.bh
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