Around 16,900 Nurses lost their franchise to cast their votes at the first ever election to elect members to the proposed Nursing Council which is due to be held tomorrow(09).These Nurses who are three fourth of the total number of nurses working in Government and Private Health Sectors lost their voting rights due to not getting registration of the Sri Lanka Medical
Council (SLMC) according to the Health Ministry sources.
Only 7310 Nurses who had already received the registration of the SLMC will eligible to cast their votes to elect six members to the Nursing Council in tomorrow's elections the Ministry sources has confirmed.The reason for majority of nurses not receiving the SLMC registration is due to the non production of their Nurses Training Certificates issued by the Nurses Training Schools.It has been revealed that it take two or three years for a Nurse to received these certificates after the completion of three years Nurses Training due to the delay of issuing them .
Meanwhile the Government Nurses Union is having a different opinion of the issue as they stressed that it's illegal to not allowing majority of Nurses to cast their votes at the Nursing Council Elections and warned that they will take this matter to the courts soon if the Health Ministry Officials not taken steps to allow these Nurses to cast their votes in tomorrow's election.