Authorities of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University have decided to introduce a “special incentive allowance” for the nurses who regularly deal with critical patients in the Intensive Care Unit, Coronary Care Unit and Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit.
The proposal for paying 25% extra on basic salary as allowance was approved on Monday in the 51st meeting of the BSMMU syndicate, the highest decision-making body of the only medical university of the country.
However, not all the nurses of these units will be benefitted.
Around 120-125 nurses will initially enjoy the benefit, of whom 40 nurses work in the ICU, 55 in the CCU and 31 in the NICU.
Seeking anonymity, a syndicate member said: “The nurses against whom there are disciplinary complaints, will not get the incentives.”
On Monday, BSMMU Registrar Professor Dr Sayedur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune: “The ICU, CCU and NICU are the most challenging wards under the Anesthesiology, Cardiology and Pediatrics departments [respectively].
“Nurses who work in these wards need special training for taking care of critical patients and hands on training to operate lifesaving equipment. Moreover, they often have to work patiently beyond their duty hours in case there are critical patients. That is why they deserve the recognition for their hard work.”
No comprehensive recruitment and promotion policy
During Monday’s meeting, the syndicate turned down the Recruitment and Promotion Policy 2010.
Instead, the syndicate advised to form a separate committee to review and form a specific and comprehensive policy that would benefit all the staff members including teachers, doctors, officers and employees.
The BSMMU which was established in April 1998 by renaming the erstwhile Post Graduate Hospital, has never had a comprehensive recruitment and promotion policy for all the staff members, except for the teachers.
In 2007, during the army-backed caretaker regime, BSMMU authorities reportedly took an initiative to formulate a draft policy in this regard. That draft, however, has never been finalised.
After the incumbent government came to power in 2009, a committee, headed by the then BSMMU treasurer Dr Moazzem Hossain, was formed and tasked with coming up a comprehensive policy. In September 2010, that committee handed over a draft policy to the vice-chancellor.
At present, all the recruitments and promotions at the university are done according to that draft policy. It was also the same draft that was placed at the meeting and was turned down by the syndicate on Monday.
Sources said during Monday’s meeting, several members vetoed the approval of the draft and advised reviewing to make the draft a more comprehensive one. Later, the syndicate members unanimously agreed to form another committee for reviewing the draft and placing it at the next meeting of the syndicate.
It has been learnt that the syndicate didn’t pass approval of the proposed policy. Several syndicate members advise to have the proposed policy be reviewed by another committee, and to make a specific policy for all. Syndicate members unanimously proposed to Vice Chancellor to form the committee soon. They request to place the reviewed policy in the next meeting.
BSMMU Registrar Prof Dr Sayedur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune: “We must bring changes to the 2010 policy.
“In that policy, retirement age for a teacher was 60 years. For the employees, it was 57 years. But the government has recently extended the retirement age to 65 for teachers and 59 for government employees. The policy needs to accommodate these changes,” he said.
The new committee would definitely look on that and hopefully would propose a better policy, the BSMMU registrar hoped.