BHOPAL : More than 12,000 nurses of government hospitals across the state, including Hamidia and Sultania Zanana Hospitals of the city, remained on strike on Monday on the call of the “Samyukta Morcha” of Nurses Associations. The strike was called to draw the attention of the government to the seven demands of the Associations.
The Associations have warned the government that if their demands were not met, the nurses would go on an indefinite strike from November 16, after submitting their resignations. Health Minister Narottam Mishra said that the state government was ready to resolve the issue through dialogue.
Due to the strike, patients had to face a lot of difficulties. The doctors did not visit the indoor wards and surgeries were postponed.
Dean of Gandhi Medical College Ulka Shrivastava said that the hospital’s working was not seriously hit as the services of students pursuing nursing courses, nursing students doing internship and nursing students of private colleges were taken.
Earlier, on October 19, the nurses had struck work for two hours in Sultania and Hamidia hospitals. The Nurses Association had called for a state-wide strike to protest against the anomalies in recruitment rules along with many other issues.
State president of Nurses Association Manju Mehsram said that the demand for increasing the stipend of the nursing students from Rs 1500 to Rs 4500 was pending for long. Besides, they also want time scale for the nurses.
