Turkmen Nurses Devastated by Decree

The Turkmen president’s decision to lay off around 15,000 nurses and medical orderlies has devastated their families and increased the concerns of the public.

At least one of the dismissed nurses has reportedly committed suicide as a result, while desperate sacked workers have taken to picketing healthcare centres, as hospitals are called in the former Soviet republic, demanding their jobs back.

President Saparamurat Niazov – who styles himself as Turkmenbashi, or “Leader of the Turkmen” – has been implementing a series of unpopular medical reforms, the most recent of which decreed that the medical staff be removed and replaced with conscripted soldiers.

One patient, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IWPR how one nurse helping to administer his electrocardiogram broke down in tears. “It turned that only that morning she had been told that her services were no longer required at the hospital,” he said.

“She told me that her husband, a dentist, had been laid off two years ago, and she was terrified that the family would not now be able to provide for their two small children. The doctor in charge of my treatment tried to comfort her by telling her that he and his colleagues were not interested in getting any salary rise at the expense of the nurses’ suffering.”

Jumanazar, from the Khalach region, told IWPR that the decree has cost at least one life already.

“A young woman committed suicide in our village,” he said. “She worked as a nurse for more than a decade, but was transferred to the technical staff after New Year, and then heard that she was losing her job soon after. She couldn’t live with the shame, and took her own life, leaving a little daughter behind.”

All technical staff, who were not normally given medical duties, have been laid off and replaced with conscripted soldiers – a move which may have saved the authorities a great deal of money, but has frightened the public, who fears that the already poor health service will suffer as a result.

The ongoing reforms have not led to an improvement in the service, and the latest move has reduced confidence even further.

Medical centre heads told IWPR that from now on, only one nurse would be available to attend two or three medical rooms. But they maintained that they were doing their best to minimise the impact of the cuts by hanging onto the most experienced personnel with the broadest skills.

One nurse who has avoided the cull so far said, “They usually fire women who have a poor sick leave record – normally mothers with young children who are often ill and need attention. It doesn’t seem fair to me, as surely these people are the ones who need jobs the most.”

As well as alarm at the redundancies, there is growing anger at the way the authorities are said to have gone about the process.

“At our health centre, the authorities insist that we sign an agreement promising that we are not going to dispute our dismissal. If we refuse, they threaten to give us such a horrendous reference that we will never work again. So we have no choice,” said one sacked nurse sadly.

The National Trade Union – which was formerly known as the Turkmen Council of Trade Unions – told IWPR that it had received hundreds of letters from sacked medical workers.

“We won’t be able to protect all of them, even though we know that this layoff is unlawful,” admitted one union official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“However, in a few cases – such as pregnant women – people have been restored to their positions. But that represents only very few cases, and there are countless other people affected by this, who unfortunately are left without protection.

“Besides, we are dependent people ourselves, and if we are too professional we will lose our jobs, just like the nurses did.”

Ata Muradov is the pseudonym of a journalist in Ashgabat.