ESIC hospital K K Nagar, Chennai - nurses go on one-day strike
Posted on: 27/Feb/2016 3:30:54 PM
Medical services were affected on Friday at the Employees State Insurance Corporation-run hospital in K.K. Nagar as nurses went on a mass casual leave demanding implementation of Seventh Pay Commission.
This hospital performs around 30 surgeries a day.
However, on Friday, 26th February, only one Cesarean section was performed and only five patients were admitted, doctors said.
Around 200 nurses at the hospital had responded to the call from the All India ESIC Nurses Federation.
The 350-bed hospital is in the middle of inspection by the Medical Council of India and the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University. Last year, MCI had provided conditional permission to the ESIC College. Construction work is still in progress at the college.
Hospital staff was instructed to refrain from admitting patients on Friday. Surgeries were suspended for the day.
Doctors were asked to do double duty to take care of emergencies.
The hospital had made arrangements to shift patients requiring immediate medical care to other hospitals. According to the staff no patient was discharged ahead of the strike.
However, in Tirunelveli, a doctor said that the hospital had discharged all 50 patients.
Representatives of the nurses association in Chennai said they had served a strike notice to the Prime Minister, the Health Minister and the Labour Minister after the Central government made no move to implement pay commission recommendations.
On Thursday, the association representatives in New Delhi held talks with the Health Secretary but with their demands remaining unaddressed, the nurses stayed away from work. If the government continued to remain unresponsive, the nurses would go on an indefinite strike from March 15.
