Medical services at the district and State hospitals were crippled as nurses and nursing students across the State remained off work for the day on Monday.
Pressing for their seven-point demands, agitating nurses staged dharna in the city.The Government hospitals suffered badly as the nurses went on a daylong strike. Several operations were postponed and patients arriving at the hospitals returned without treatment at several places.
President of the Madhya Pradesh Regional Nurses Association Manju Meshram said that the nurses would go on indefinite strike from November 16 if their demands are not met in the talks scheduled on Tuesday with the Principal Secretary of Medical Education and Principal Secretary of Health.
Meshram claimed that the dean of Hamidia College has assured them that their demands would be provided to the senior officials. She said that nurses of private colleges would be contacted to support them in the protest. Among the major demands the association wants that nurses should be included in class II employee category, provided appropriate stipend to the intern nurses, selection process for the nurses should be fixed and increment which was provided after the joining of the nurses and was stopped in the year 2005 should be started.
Earlier memorandum has been handed over to health minister but no heed was paid which forced the association to take move further with the protest and in case if the demands are not met in the talks which are scheduled on Tuesday. She claimed that few of the protesting nurses were allowed to assist in the emergency cases of accident and pregnant women. Nursing students of government and private colleges participated in the protest.