Nurses to get higher allowance

Nurses in the public sector will be receiving a higher premium allowance in a bid to attract more of them to the job, The Times has learnt.

Sources said some nurses will be getting a maximum of Lm1,250 a year by 2009.

Under a 1993 agreement, nurses receive an annual premium allowance of between Lm400 and Lm750.

The agreement was meant to address the shortage of nurses, but such shortage is still present.

The sources said the "substantial increase" in the premium allowance was one of some 11 measures intended to attract more people into the profession.

In August, the health authorities said they would be making an extra effort to recruit nurses from other European Union countries after first attempting to recruit all newly qualified nurses and to entice back those who had left the public service.