Mumbai: The indefinite nurses’ strike, across state-run hospitals in Maharashtra, entered its third day as the negotiations with the state government failed. Close to 1400 nurses from Mumbai participated at the protest in Azad Maidan on Monday. The protesting nurses of the Maharashtra State Nurses Association (MSNA) have demanded that the state government should not outsource nurses for the vacant posts in the state-run hospitals and fill the vacancies at the earliest.
Sumitra Tote, secretary, MSNA, said, “We had a meeting with the state health officials on Monday. They asked us to call off the strike after which they will discuss with us our demands. We are not going to call off the strike till our demands are met.”
Dr Deelip Mhaisekar, DMER said, “We are in talks with the association and hoping that they will call off the strike and not cause further inconvenience to the patients.”
The hospitals continue to postpone elective surgeries and concentrate on emergency work. “We have managed to maintain patient care with student nurses and resident doctors. Each ward has a resident doctor 24×7 supported by student nurses. The MSc nursing students, who have work experience too, are posted in casualties, operation theatres, intensive care units,” she said.
Dr Saple added that if the strike continues, they will decide on Tuesday whether they should take the help of nurses from the municipal corporation hospitals. JJ Hospital, which otherwise does close to 65 surgeries a day, did 22 surgeries on Monday.
On May 21, the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) held a meeting with all deans, medical superintendents, nursing superintendents, along with matrons, and allowed state-run hospitals to take the help of the nursing staff of corporation hospitals, and nursing colleges.