All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) nurses shout slogans during a strike to demand better pay and working condition in New Delhi, India, 15 December(Pallav/Asianlite)
The ongoing nurses’ strike at AIIMS has come as a nightmare for patients who required immediate medical intervention as doctors at the emergency ward had to return upto 50 per cent of patients on Tuesday due to lack of staff…Ashish Srivastava.
The doctors told IANS that they attended to only severely critical patients in the ward.
“The patients who did not require critical medical assistance at the moment were requested to visit other facilities for their treatment. We only treated the patients who came in extremely bad shape,” the chief medical officer (CMO) on duty told IANS.
The other doctors of the ward estimated that patients as high as 50 per cent of the total footfall were told to look for other medical facilities. “We are short-staffed to manage the ward at its full capacity,” a doctor requesting anonymity told IANS.
In the morning, IANS had reported that AIIMS may curtail its emergency services in view of the indefinite strike declared by nursing staff of the premier medical institute.
While there was no official direction from the hospital administration regarding the curtailment of the emergency services, the doctors claimed that it was verbally circulated.
D.K. Sharma, Medical Superintendent (MS) had said that to control the situation, the administration had asked all the junior, resident and senior doctors to double up for the nurses who are currently on agitation over a long list of demands including clarity on salary structure and a freeze on hiring on contract.
Around 5,000 nurses of AIIMS are on the indefinite strike since Monday afternoon against the hospital’s decisions to enrol nursing officers on contractual payroll.
The nurses’ union’s demands include correction of an anomaly in the fixation of the initial pay as per the Sixth Central Pay Commission (CPC), redressal of issues such as abolishing of gender-based reservation in the recruiting process of nursing officers and contractual appointments, enhancement of hospital accommodation and cadre restructuring.
Currently, a meeting called by AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria with the nurses’ union is underway. The meeting was called after the Delhi High Court restrained the nurses from continuing their indefinite strike.
As per sources, officials of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare are also present in the meeting.