The Punjab Health Department has messed up the induction of nurses, as more than half of the candidates were issued new dates upon arrival at the department, causing a lot of trouble to female candidates coming from far-flung areas during Ramadan, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The health department invited more than 100 candidates for the post of nurses across public hospitals on Saturday. But upon arrival, the candidates were told that only 50 candidates would be interviewed while the rest were issued new schedules. This has caused a lot of inconvenience to female candidates who came from far-flung districts during Ramadan by bearing high transport costs. Many of them had taken a day off from work for the scheduled interview. “It’s five of us and we have come from Faisalabad for the interviews after receiving a letter from the health department. We hired a taxi at Rs 5,000 to share the cost and even took a day off from the private hospital where we are already working. But now they have told us that we will not be interviewed and have given a new date for the same. It is so hectic to leave work and come all the way while fasting as well. There is no one to reprimand officers who can do no good,” a disappointed candidate, along with her fellows said, seeking anonymity. Another candidate who had come from Sahiwal said, “This trip from Sahiwal will cost me and my friend at least Rs 3,000 and here they have displayed a list of only 50 candidates for the interview, while the rest will come again and incur the same cost again. There is not even a proper sitting area here. The waiting room has a very limited capacity to accommodate a few people and that is also full most of the time. We have to stand in the corridors and sit on the floor.”
A senior doctor at the health department said the entire “mess up” has been created due to mismanagement of health officials. A very convenient method to hire nurses was to conduct their interviews at their relevant districts by health EDOs. “The other very simple option is to call only those candidates who can be interviewed in one day. This demands only changing dates on the call letters issued to candidates. This seems pathetic that all nurses should be called out but the official cannot change a date. This is height of mismanagement,” he added.
Punjab Health Secretary Jahanzeb Khan said that the department did not think that the interviews would take such a long time. He said that the inconvenience caused to the candidates is regretted and a method would be devised to avoid such incidents in the future. Jahanzeb said that the incident could have been easily avoided.
