After talks with the state health minister Rajesh Tope and the Directorate of Medical Research and Education (DMER) failed on Wednesday, the Maharashtra State Nurses Association (MSNA) has decided to go on a two-day strike from May 26.
The association, which has 25,000 members, said they will not participate in emergency services too, and if the demands are not met, they plan to go on an indefinite strike from Saturday.
Among the many demands, the association is protesting the outsourcing the hiring process of 1,749 of the 4,500 vacancies across the state. “We had an unofficial meeting with the health minister Rajesh Tope. He only gave us assurance to look into the demands. The talks with DMER also were not satisfying. We have therefore decided to go ahead with the strike,” said Sumitra Tote, secretary of MSNA. Since Monday, the nurses have been boycotting work for an hour between 7.30 am to 8.30 am.
The nurses have also demanded ‘request-based transfers’ instead of regular, mandatory transfers. Dr Deelip Mhaisekar, director, DMER said, “We are looking into their demands. They have not told us that they are going on a full strike from May 26.”
Meanwhile hospitals like Sir JJ Group of Hospital have decided to rope in student nurses and take help of resident doctors to tide over the situation. “We have around 200-250 student nurses who will be posted in all wards. We have a handful of senior nurses who will supervise. We are also going to have a resident doctor posted round the clock in all wards,” said Dr Pallavi Saple, dean of Sir JJ Group of Hospitals.
She said elective surgeries will be postponed for the next two days and food for all the students will be provided by the canteen in the ward. “We have asked doctors to discharge patients who don’t need to stay in hospital,” added Dr Saple.