2023-08-10 11:32:08
Nurses have never shared the profits of hospitals, as the latter enjoy their profits alone, while sharing crises with their nurses. And how can hospitals complaining about the emigration of their nursing staff refuse to adjust their wages denominated in Lebanese pounds, despite receiving their bills from patients in fresh US dollars? How can hospitals risk the lives of their patients by putting pressure on their nurses, physically and psychologically?
Low salaries
More than 30 percent of the nursing staff have left Lebanon since 2019 until today. The overwhelming majority of immigrants are with long experience in the field of nursing. More than 3,300 male and female nurses immigrated, compared to about 9,000 male and female nurses who pay their subscriptions to the Syndicate.
The nurses did not immigrate in greed for high salaries, but rather in search of salaries that secure their livelihood after they were unable to secure them in Lebanese private and government hospitals. Even those who continue to work in hospitals at the present time, for no reason other than family or social circumstances that prevent them from emigrating, which is the case of dozens of them, perhaps hundreds.
And how is it possible to secure a full month’s living and the cost of transportation, with a salary of only $230, according to what one of the nurses at Dar al-Amal University Hospital in Baalbek says, where workers in the x-ray departments earn only $165, which is not enough to pay the cost of transportation.
Among the hospitals are those who pay the salaries of their nursing staff in pounds as well, despite the dollarization of the bills for patients. Some of them even refuse to admit a patient before imposing a specific amount in dollars as payment on the account before providing any treatment.
Nurses at the Lebanese French Hospital in Zahle receive only 100 dollars and 9 million Lebanese pounds, noting that the majority of the nursing staff come from areas far from Zahle, and the same applies to Dar Al Amal Hospital in Baalbek. As for Al-Makassed Hospital in Beirut, the salaries of its nurses amount to 200 dollars and 8 million pounds. Even the largest hospitals have the largest bills for patients and the highest medical and hospital tariffs, such as Clemenceau University Hospital in Beirut. The salaries of nurses do not exceed 400 dollars only.
No matter how different salaries are between hospitals, all of them remain below the standard of living for nurses, according to what the Head of the Nurses Syndicate, Dr. Rima Sassin, says. In her interview with Al-Modon, Sassine said, “We did not ask the hospitals for the impossible. We only asked for an improvement in salaries commensurate with the standard of living, after we saw an improvement in the situation of hospitals through the dollarization of their bills.”
between the union and hospitals
Sassine explains that the union did not ask for a final correction, but rather a temporary correction of the wages, and it relied on the salary scale before the crisis, when the average salary was 1,000 dollars (one million and 500 thousand pounds at the time) and demanded that half of the salary be paid in fresh dollars, or 500 dollars, and the rest in Lebanese pounds, or 500 dollars in pounds. . Hospitals refused the union’s demand, ignoring the nurses’ inability to secure their livelihood.
Hospitals Syndicate Suleiman Haroun admits that the salaries and wages of hospital workers, especially the nursing staff, are low, “but hospitals suffer from financial difficulties,” according to what Haroun said in his interview with Al-Modon, pointing out that the hospitals did not refuse to raise wages, but declared their inability to meet the request of the Nurses Syndicate by applying wage scale that you set.
In response to the issue of dollarization of hospital bills against patients, Haroun says, in exchange for its refusal to raise the wages of its workers, “The bills paid by hospitals are also dollarized, meaning that the cost of expenses has also increased.”
Which is true, but don’t hospitals consider the salaries of their employees as part of their operating expenses, or do patients have no rights to secure their livelihood?
Experienced migration
Unfair practices against male and female nurses are not only limited to their low salaries, but also to imposing long working hours on them that exceed all international standards. Sassin explains that working hours in private hospitals are approximately 42 hours per week, while in government hospitals it is about 35 hours per week. However, international standards require the nurse not to exceed 35 working hours per week, because working 42 hours has repercussions on patients and the health of workers, especially at the present time in light of the shortage. with nursing staff.
Sassine points out that the shortage of nursing cadres has raised the level of pressure on nurses, as the nurse currently receives a number of patients that exceeds what is permitted globally, and the number of patients responsible for one nurse reaches 10 and 15 patients, noting that international standards specify 6 to 7 patients for each nurse.
Hence, the Nurses Syndicate continues to hold meetings to discuss escalatory steps in the face of hospitals and to exert pressure in order to obtain the rights of nursing staff. “We cannot continue this bleeding with the nursing staff,” Sassine says.
The crisis of bleeding nursing staff and the emigration of experienced ones is felt by hospitals through their low level of care. Fresh graduates do not have the experience to assume professional responsibilities that require long experience. This is what Haroun acknowledges by saying that the crisis today has become a crisis of expertise, not just immigration and salaries, as graduates are unable to fill the void of immigrants from nurses.
Hence, the image of the vicious circle in which the hospital sector revolves becomes clear. Hospitals insist that their situation is difficult and that they cannot tolerate an increase in wages in exchange for salaries that are incapable of securing the livelihood of nurses, and emigration continues, and patients, as usual, remain the victims.
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