Mumbai: After Class IV employees of Kasturba Hospital staged a protest on Monday, demanding adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to safely handle coronavirus patients after two of them were infected, it was the turn of the medical staff at the state government-run Cooper Hospital to do so on Wednesday.
Nurses, paramedics and medical workers refused to report to work during the early hours of the day because they had not been provided sufficient safety gear required while dealing with COVID-19 patients.
The staff also strongly protested the assault on a nurse by the relative of a patient on Tuesday night when reportedly, no authority or security personnel came to her rescue.
"The staffers are not happy with one of the nurses getting beaten up by a patient's relative. However, after we assured them the administration would take the necessary measures, they joined duty," said Dr Pinakin Gujjar, dean of the hospital.
"We have procured the required safety gear for our staffers and will get more in due course of time. This is a testing situation and things are not available easily. We are doing our best to safeguard our staffers," he added.
