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Show-cause notices to AIIMS Bathinda nursing staff as stir enters day 2
Scores of nursing officers are camping in the open at the main entrance of the institute on the Bathinda-Dabwali road
Work at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) was affected for the second consecutive day as the indefinite strike by nursing staff continued on Thursday.
The central institute has about 580 nursing officers, who are working only in the emergency ward. On Wednesday, they had launched an indefinite strike to press for their demands, including eight leaves every month, parity in promotions with other staff from medical and other departments, among others.
Scores of nursing officers are camping in the open at the main entrance of the institute on the Bathinda-Dabwali road. Protesters say seven nursing officers have been served a show cause notice for participating in the protest and the institute administration remains non-committal towards time-bound redressal of their demands.
AIIMS spokesperson Dr Traun Goyal said on Thursday the institute had started serving show cause notices to the staff abstaining from work.
“The management has taken a strong view of the nursing staff abstaining from patient care work. Nearly 10 nurses were served notices for staying absent and indulging in activities to disrupt health care work ,” the spokesperson said .
Doctors said they were facing challenge in the out-patient department (OPD) and operation theatres, where the medical interns and students from the institute’s nursing college have been roped in to resume work.
“We are somehow managing. Junior resident doctors, interns and nursing students have been tasked with different work. They are replacing nurses in the surgery works too,” a doctor said on Thursday.
The protesting nurses alleged that the AIIMS administration was maintaining dual standards on campus.
“Probation period of the nursing staff has been increased by one year because the in-patient department (IPD) was not fully functional after we were inducted. But that was not our fault as the nurses were working during the Covid-19 pandemic. While we have been denied promotions due to enhanced probation whereas doctors, lab technicians and staff from other departments have been duly promoted,” said one of the protesters.
