Gampaha nurses hold one-hour protest over claimed staffing shortage

Nursing officers at Gampaha District General Hospital held a one-hour protest on November 13 over staffing, according to the Government Nursing Officers’ Association’s account reported by the published report. The union says approximately 120 additional nurses are needed beyond the roughly 370 currently working there.

The protest was reported from 11am to noon Sri Lanka time. The association says vacancies have increased workloads and placed staff under physical and psychological pressure. Its claim that some nurses carry the work of three people is a union assessment, not an independently audited staffing ratio.

In a letter to provincial health officials, the association sought urgent appointments or transfers. It warned of stronger action if no adequate response followed. That is a conditional warning; it does not establish that a new strike has already begun, that the hospital has closed or that every patient service was suspended.

No detailed official response or completed recruitment measure is established in the reviewed report. Patients should use the hospital’s own current service information rather than infer cancellation of an appointment from a protest headline. The ward photograph is a general illustration, not this hospital or its patients.