The association of Government nurses of Uttarakhand is not happy with the decision of State Government to restructure their cadre. The association is of the view that the Government should have increased the posts of staff nurses. In a recent order the State Government had restructured the Nursing cadre in which it created posts of Additional director and Joint Director Nursing with grade pays of `7600 and `8700 respectively. The Government also created a one more post of Deputy Director Nursing. Interestingly in the restructuring the 40 posts of the entry level staff nurses were reduced from earlier 975 to 935. Doing a balancing act the posts of Sister (Grade pay `4800) were increased from 313 to 350.
The decision of the State Government comes in wake of the recent strike of Uttarakhand nursing association. This decision of the State Government is being viewed as a reconciliation measure to assuage the frayed nerves of the nurses.
When contacted the State President of the association Anjana Bhowmick said the State Government should increase the posts of the staff nurses which form the backbone of the nursing cadre. She said that one of the demands of the association was to increase 18 posts of Assistant Nursing Superintendent.
Bhowmick said that there are 6000 beds in different Government hospitals of the State while the total sanctioned posts of nurses are only 1335. “The State Government should increase the number of posts in nursing cadre so that patients are cared properly. As per the norms of WHO there should be at least 4000 nurses in the State Government service”, she said.
The association was demanding restructuring of the cadre and increase in their grade pays for which it went on a State wide strike plunging the health services of the state into a state of crisis. The strike was suspended by the agitating nurses when the High Court ordered the State Government and nurses to resolve the issue and forced the nurses to suspend the strike.