MP Govt nurses on indefinite strike over pending demands

Bhopal: Citing the government's failure to fulfil their 10 points demand, the nursing staff serving in all the Government hospitals, including the district hospital, community health centres across the state along with the Nursing Association went on an indefinite strike from Monday. 

The protesting nurse has threatened that their strike will continue until their pending demands are met by the government.The nursing staff of the state's hospitals participated in the strike and have been agitating for a long time regarding their 10-point demands. They staged a protest at MY Hospital’s entrance and shouted slogans against the state government. 

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The Nursing Association alleges that since 2014, nurses have been denied promotions. At the same time, the stipend given to nurses has also not been increased. Therefore, their demands include second-grade pay, the revival of the Old Pension Scheme in Madhya Pradesh, night allowance, a hike in the stipend of nursing students, and regularisation of contractual employees among others. 

It came to light that despite assurances from government officials, the association have not received any written confirmation of their demands which prompted them to go on with the strike. 

The protests, however, thrown the medical facilities, services and other arrangements out of order at different district government hospitals from Monday. Major hospitals like JP Hospital, Katju Hospital and Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital were impacted. 

“At 41-point memorandum was submitted to the state government. There was almost no agreement on the same. However, assurances have not translated into action. Today, paramedics, pharmacists, dental assistants, radiographers, and lab technicians have come out in support of nursing staff,” said Ambar Chouhan, a spokesperson for striking nursing staff informed TOI. 

In these circumstances, the hospital management has made its alternative arrangements to keep the health services smooth and the problems of the patients, under which the hospital management has taken the help of the nursing staff of private medical colleges. 

The problems of the patients increased after the association and the nursing staff stopped providing emergency services due to the strike. 

In response to this, MY Hospital superintendent Dr PS Thakur informed FPJ, “We have deployed a team of paramedic staff from various nursing schools and colleges to attend to the patients while the management has also asked the nursing staff (regular) to deal with the emergency."

On the other hand, Laxmi Narayan Sharma, general secretary of the health employees’ union, said, “Nurses are demanding Grade-II pay scale benefit. The government is looking into the matter. Earlier, nurses were on strike to demand the status of medical officers along with other demands.” 

JP Hospital civil surgeon Dr Rakesh Shrivastava said, “Talks are on with nurses to call off the strike. We have pressed contractual paramedical staff into service. Situation is under control at the hospital.”

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