The plight of the State health department is likely to increase from next week onwards as the agitated staff nurses will likely to boycott the health services in the State. However, sources confirmed that their demands would be fulfilled very soon.
Unable to cope up with the callous approach of the State health department as their year long pending demands are still pending even though more than one decade has passed since the formation of the State, Uttarakhand Nurses Services Association (UNSA) office bearers have threatened to intensify their agitation from Monday onwards.
In the first phase of the agitation roster, the staff nurses will boycott the services in Doon Group of Hospitals till 14 August and later, spread their agitation in another government hospital till 17 August. In case their pending demands are not fulfilled by August 17, then the staff nurses will boycott the work in all the 13 districts of Uttarakhand. The Association office bearers lamented that the State Government has not taken any step to fulfill their year long pending demands despite memorandum was submitted many times to top officials and public representatives.
Well established sources revealed that the hospital administration is planning to deploy pharmacists and apprentice medical students to provide medical assistance to admitted patients in the Government hospitals. If staff nurses boycott the medical services in the Government hospital then those patients who are admitted in the Government hospitals will land in problem.
The UNSA has decided to work for only shift duty from 8am to 2 pm as per set by MCI (Medical Council of India) 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 of sixth 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.
She further said that Association has decided not to include other districts except Dehradun in the first and second phase of agitation as the State is reeling under the pressure of natural calamities. It is equally important to mention here is that the staff nurses had earlier also boycotted the services in support of their pending demands and withdrew their agitation only after receiving assurance from the Government that their demands would be fulfilled in the coming days.