A total of $11.6million has been allocated to cater for the upgrade of nurses’ salaries and overtime.

Minister of Finance and Deputy PM Prof Biman Prasad confirmed this in his 2023-2024 national budget address in parliament yesterday as he announced the $453.8mmillion allocation for the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, a significant increase of $58.7m from this year.

Mr Prasad said the salaries and wages budget for the ministry had increased to $126.4m.

That, he said would cater for:

• 250 intern nurses to move up to become registered Nurses,
• 237 new intern nurses,
• 46 nursing asistants,
• 50 nursing aides,
• 40 midwives,
• 94 medical laboratory scientists, and
• additional support staff in various hospitals and non-medical officers for the Fiji Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Services to strengthen capacity and improve procurement efficiency.

He said those additional positions would help improve the service gaps and address the present capacity needs within the ministry.

“The nursing assistant and nurse aide positions have been created to support our nurses focus on their core role, where these aides and assistants will take over the non-clinical responsibilities like making the bed, getting the consumables, and other time consuming tasks that used to keep the nurses occupied,” Mr Prasad said.