Despite the imposition of Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), the indefinite strike (mass casual leave) of the nurses continued on the second day on Friday to press for their pending demands of pay grade and ending of discrimination in the salary. The strike going on under the banner of Uttarakhand Nursing Services Association has left health services of indoor patients in the government hospitals of the district paralysed. The indoor patients of the state-run hospitals are bearing the maximum brunt of the strike despite the hospitals administration claiming to have put in place alternate arrangements.
Although the chief medical superintendents of the government hospitals have deployed the intern nursing student, contractual nurses and pharmacists aside from multiple heath workers in the hospitals to ensure near normalcy during the strike. Things are worsening with the number of indoor patients thinning with every passing day. The major surgeries in the hospitals have come to a grinding halt, compounding woes of the people. Only minor ones are being conducted.
Picture of crippled medical service is the same in several state-run medical facilities like Pauri district hospital, Pauri women district hospital, joint hospital Kotdwar and Srinagar base hospital.
Pauri District Hospital C M S Dr R B Singh said that the all 15 nursing staff of the hospital are on strike. He said he had received the order of imposing ESMA and the notices will be served on Saturday to the striking nurses. As alternate arrangement, eight multi- health workers, seven trainee nurses and six pharmacists have been deployed in Pauri District Hospital to bring medical services back on tracks.