The strike called on by the staff nurses continued on second consecutive day on Tuesday with the agitators also threatening to intensify their agitation in the coming days, if their demands are not met by the State Government in the given time frame. The patients admitted in Doon Group of Hospitals faced a tough time in the absence of the trained staff nurses in the Government hospitals.
Hundreds of staff nurses under the banner of Uttarakhand Nurses Services Association (UNSA) boycotted the medical and health services in order to fulfill their year long pending demands. Although deploy pharmacists and apprentice medical students are deployed to cater the medical needs of admitted patients, but the strike is causing huge inconvenience to them.
The UNSA office bearers have decided to work for only shift duty from 8am to 2 pm as per Medical Council of India standards which clearly highlighted that one staff nurse should cater the medical need of every five admitted patients in the hospital. Since the state has been facing the acute shortage of staff nurses, the staff nurses under the banner of UNSA will abstain from afternoon and night duties.
It is noteworthy that pay anomaly, timely promotion, dress allowance, risk allowance, benefits six pay commission, curing the gap between sanctioned and vacant posts etc. are among the few main pending demands of the Association. After expressing her resentment over the callous approach of the state health department for not redressing their year long pending demands, Anjana Bhaumick, State President UNSA said that memorandum highlighting their demands was submitted many times to top bureaucrats but no step was taken by them to fulfill their pending demands.
UNSA members have decided to restart their strike after the State Government does not take steps to issue government orders on those issues that were discussed during last agitation in the month of August.