CHENNAI: Over 1,500 contract nurses who had been on a protest fast at the DMS campus for three days, withdrew their strike after a meeting with State Health Minister C Vijayabaskar and Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan.
The members of the Tamil Nadu Contract Nurses Welfare Association had continued their protest till Saturday, despite Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa announcing in the Assembly on Friday that over 1,500 nurses in service will be regularised.
The protesting nurses had demanded regularisation of the remaining 1,400 nurses and continued their protest. Meanwhile, a meeting between Health Department officials and the nurses association representatives was held at the Secretariat early on Saturday.
“We promised them that the remaining nurses would also be absorbed into government service. There are a lot of new hospitals coming up, like the ESIC hospital in Coimbatore, Government hospital in Karur and Pudukottai as well as primary health centres in many places across the state. We assured them that in a few months, the remaining nurses’ service also would be regularised. So they withdrew their protest,” the director, Medical and Rural Health Services, Dr S Mani told Express.
Meanwhile, over 10 nurses, who participated in the indefinite fast, are under treatment at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital after fainting at the DMS campus.