Shillong, April 26: Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh on Wednesday said there is a huge surplus of nurses in the state of Meghalaya, but there are not enough jobs to go around. One of the ways to tide over this crisis, the government is mooting to send these nurses abroad in countries that require well trained nurses who are also proficient in their languages.

Emphasizing on the need to ensure that nurses are compulsorily given an opportunity or made to learn languages or language skill, she said if the nurses in the state can pick up foreign languages such as French or Japanese, it would open a new avenue for them.

“We are aware that several foreign countries require nursing care which is not available in their own countries. Whereas if our nurses who are already very hospitable in nature, very kind in nature, if they can have a language skill opportunity to pick up a language in any European country maybe if they could learn French, if they could learn Japanese (as) I am told very recently that there is big requirement for nursing care, nursing aid in these foreign countries. So, we now need to look at this huge unemployment even in this one category alone,” she said.

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Lyngdoh said that the state does not have as many sanctioned posts, which is about 1500 plus, adding that “we are going to be looking at a probable move to ensure that the sanction number of such posts at least as per national norms are already made available.”

Further, the government is going to be engaging with institutions and various agencies that can help bring gainful employment to these nurses.

She also stressed on the importance of HR management in the health sector. “I think this is one way we can start seeing a health system which is functioning. We are working on it and today’s meeting is a meeting where we were able to review all of this so that we can perform better,” she said. She informed that a dashboard will be created in this regard to better manage the HR in the health sector.

Meanwhile, the health minister informed that there is a huge shortfall in specialist doctors in the state. “I think we are at 177 (deficit) and the national standard is about 300 plus,” she said. She also informed that another 50-60 plus doctors are already going for these specialized courses.

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