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The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which reads as follows:

Article 2, paragraphs 1 and 2(b), of the Convention.  The Committee notes with interest the measures taken by the Government in improving nursing training. Until December 1986, 515 nurses had benefited from various nursing training geared to attainment of a higher level of nursing care. It requests the Government to continue to supply information on any developments in this respect.

Article 2, paragraph 4.  The Committee notes from the Government’s report that although appropriate consultations are being made in respect of policies affecting nursing services and nursing personnel, these policies are not coordinated with policies relating to other aspects of health care and to other workers in the field of health. It requests the Government to indicate, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention, the measures which have been taken or contemplated to ensure that the policy concerning nursing services and nursing personnel be coordinated with policies relating to other aspects of health care and to other workers in the field of health, in consultation with the employers’ and workers’ organizations concerned.

Article 7.  The Committee notes that new measures, in the context of negotiating a collective agreement to improve occupational health and safety of nursing personnel, are still under consideration. It requests the Government to provide information on any progress achieved in this respect. Furthermore, with reference to its general observation of 1990, which was reiterated in 1994, the Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures which have been taken or envisaged, in consultation with the employers’ and workers’ organizations concerned, to take into account the particular risk of accidental exposure to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among nursing personnel: for example, by the arrangement of working conditions, confidentiality of test results, recognition that the cause of infection was occupational, etc.

Part V of the report form.  The Committee requests the Government to supply, if possible, data on the number of persons leaving the profession and to indicate any practical difficulties encountered in the implementation of the Convention.