Nurses begin indefinite stir at KGMU

NURSES BEGAN an indefinite strike at the King George?s Medical University (KGMU) on Wednesday after the varsity administration did not concur with them about not appointing nurses at the Trauma Centre on an ad hoc basis.

NURSES BEGAN an indefinite strike at the King George’s Medical University (KGMU) on Wednesday after the varsity administration did not concur with them about not appointing nurses at the Trauma Centre on an ad hoc basis.

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Several rounds of talks were held with the KGMU administration and the officials of the Medical, Education & Health Department, including the Secretary (Medical Education) and the KGMU Vice-Chancellor, on Tuesday, but to no avail.

“We have decided to continue the strike for indefinite period even if the state government invokes the Essential Services’ Maintenance Act. We have pledged to go on with our opposition against appointment of nurses through a private agency,” said Rajkiya Nurses Sangh-UP State general secretary Ashok Kumar.

The strike stranded patients admitted at the Gandhi Memorial & Associated Hospitals. The 2,200-bed hospital is run with the help of 280 nurses, 250 senior faculty members and 460 junior doctors. Half of the faculty members are on summer leave and the admission of the fresh batch of junior residents is pending.

The Trauma Centre needs 64 nurses and it has already appointed 25 through a private agency—Sun Facility Services—for the Departments of Paediatrics (7), Surgical Gastroenterology (4), Neuro-trauma (7) and Orthopaedics (7). More nurses are to be appointed in the Department of General Surgery (15), ICI (7) and Medicine (7), in a day or two.

The last strike by the nurses began on March 27. It lasted for a single shift after which the Nurses Association and the varsity administration came up with a mutually acceptable solution. But this time, the nurses say, the stir would end only when a decision is taken and implemented.