Thirty-six student nurses who had been told they faced expulsion by the Ministry of Health after a strike in March 1984 returned to their duties after the threatened penalty was not implemented, according to archived reporting from this newspaper. The episode, involving roughly 150 student nurses training in Suva and Lautoka, culminated in an ultimatum from the Ministry that required striking students to reply in writing by 4pm on Tuesday, March 27, 1984, or face termination of their nursing careers.
The students had staged a seven-day walkout in protest at the dismissal of three fellow trainees. A Ministry statement on the Tuesday said 36 students had failed to meet the deadline and would be expelled. But by late the following day, the Fiji Nursing Association (FNA) reported that none of those students had actually received formal expulsion notices and that they were back at work.
FNA executive director at the time, Vincent Lobendahn, produced the form the Ministry had issued to the returning students. The document acknowledged the students’ failure to respond to the ultimatum but went on to state: “However, I am pleased to note that you have returned to duty. Please fill in attached form to confirm that you have returned to duty.” Further down the form was the declaration: “This is confirmed that I have returned to duty to continue nursing training….”
Lobendahn told the paper the students had not deliberately ignored the Ministry’s deadline. He said he had advised the students to await guidance from the FNA when the ultimatum was released and that he had sought legal advice from the association’s lawyer, Hasmukh Patel. Lobendahn said he was only able to report back to the nurses with instructions at about 1pm on the day of the deadline, by which time several students who had been on shift from 8am until 4pm could not be contacted and only returned to the Fiji School of Nursing at about 5pm—after the deadline had passed.
Because no expulsion letters had been issued to the cohort, the FNA declined to make a formal response to the Ministry’s earlier statement that 36 students would be expelled. The Minister for Health at the time, Dr Apenisa Kurisaqila, issued a press statement thanking the 116 students who had returned to training duties, leaving the matter de-escalated without recorded terminations.
The account, drawn from a March 29, 1984 report in this newspaper, clarifies the resolution of a tense confrontation between trainee nurses and the Ministry more than four decades ago. It highlights the FNA’s role in advising its members and the involvement of lawyer Hasmukh Patel in the association’s response, and confirms that the Ministry’s threat of expulsion was not formalised before the students resumed their training.
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