Ludhiana: Nurses’ strike paralyses services at civil hospital

Patients were left in a lurch after 49 staff nurses at the Civil Hospital went on strike seeking fulfilment of their long-pending demands on Tuesday

Patients were left in a lurch after 49 staff nurses at the Civil Hospital went on strike seeking fulfilment of their long-pending demands on Tuesday.

The labour ward of the civil hospital was the worst hit by the nurses protest as pregnant patients visiting the hospital for normal deliveries were turned away and asked to come on Thursday (HT file)

Several medical services, including the emergency, were hit due the strike. Their demands include allowance for food, uniform, and nursing; pay parity; removal of ‘anomalies’ in recommendations of the sixth pay commission; introduction of old pension scheme for the regular employees recruited after 2004; regularisation of contractual staff and designation of nursing officers for staff nurses.

The labour ward was the worst hit as pregnant patients visiting the hospital for normal deliveries were turned away and asked to come on Thursday.

The patients visiting the OPD were also at the receiving end as there was no one to register their name, monitor their condition and refer them to the doctor concerned. A disgruntled patient, Harpreet Kaur,a resident of nearby Field Ganj, who has been visiting the hospital for two days said, “Yesterday, I was told to come today (Tuesday). However, I was turned away yet again and told to come after two days.”

Chitranjan Kumar, who was attending to a relative, said no nurse was available to change his cousins’ intravenous glucose drip. “We asked the staff to tell us the timing of the medicine, but were given no help,” said Chitranjan.

While admitting that services had suffered due to the nurses’ strike, senior medical officer (SMO) Dr Amarjeet Kaur said, “We had hired nurses on contract basis to look after the ailing patients.”

Members of the association said that senior and junior nursing staff had observed strikes and not performed their duties at the Civil Hospital, including emergency services. The protesting nurses said that the demands had been raised several times in the past, but the government had not fulfilled them.

The nurses ended their strike in the afternoon and handed over a memorandum to the SMO.