GOVERNMENT has, with immediate effect, suspended the bonding of nurses until it has capacity to employ them, a senior Government official has said.  Human resources director in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare Ms Jane Mudyara said the suspension will remain in force as long as there is limited absorption capacity within the public health sector.

This will see the Government releasing 532 diplomas for registered general nurses (RGNs) and 529 certificates for primary care nurses (PCNs) who were trained since 2009, but are jobless.

The Ministry of Health and Child Welfare yesterday said certificates and diplomas will be released to those who have registered with the ministry that they are not emplo-yed.

"Registered general nurses and primary care nurses who graduated between 2009 and 2011 who are still unemployed and registered for the release of their certificates and diplomas with the ministry are requested to collect their diplomas," the ministry said.

The unemployed nurses will start collecting their certificates on Monday.

Government was withholding diplomas for nurses who completed training, arguing that they had to work at Government health institutions for at least three years.

However, the Government failed to employ the bonded nurses following Treasury's decision to freeze all posts.

This rendered most trained nurses jobless.

Bonding of nurses was introduced in 2007 to avert brain drain

 Many professionals in the medical sector left the country for greener pastures at the height of the economic melt down.

This prompted the Government to stop newly-trained nurses from leaving the country upon completion of their studies by holding on to their certificates.

The release of the diplomas will enable the trained nurses to look for employment elsewhere.

Government health institutions, however, remain understaffed.

The Health Services Board (HSB), whose mandate is to negotiate for the welfare of health workers, said it will continue negotiating with the Finance Ministry to unfreeze more vacant posts.

Last year, the Ministry of Finance unfroze 1 168 posts for health professionals, of which 594 were for nurses.

Ms Mudyara said training will continue, but intakes have been reviewed in light of limited absorption capacity.

Last year alone, the Government trained 1 044 nurses across its training institutions.

HSB acting executive director Mr Michael Sande said freeing the unemployed nurses did not mean that the Government no longer needs them.

"This is out of the realisation that Government cannot continue to deny the nurses other opportunities by holding on to their certificates when we cannot give them jobs," said Mr Sande, adding that, "the saturation of health professionals that the Ministry appears to have is artificial".

The Health Service Board, together with the Ministry of Health, consulted and will continue to engage the Ministry of Finance for a review of the Ministry of Health's establishment.

"We hope that the Ministry of Finance can accommodate our establishment expansion request to ensure that our health institutions have more appropriate manpower levels," Mr Sande said.

Of late, legal experts have said the Government was in breach of the Manpower Development Act, which stipulates that bonded graduates can work for other employers.

The State can, according to the Act, recover funds used during training through the employers if it cannot employ them.