CHENNAI: Nurses working on contractual appointments in government hospitals continued their protest for the fifth day as talks with Health Minister Ma Subramanian failed on Monday. The minister said that the jobs of around 723 nurses will be regularised by creating new positions.
The minister held talks with various nurses’ associations including the Tamil Nadu Nurses Empowerment Association. Later speaking to reporters, Subramanian said, many of the nurses’ demands were agreed to. Before Pongal, around 723 new vacancies will be created by conducting promotion counselling for nursing superintendent grade-II and nursing tutor grade-II, he said, adding that this will create 266 and 140 posts respectively to which contractual appointments of nurses will be made.
Postings will also be created in 37 critical care blocks and nurses who worked during the Covid-19 pandemic will be posted on communal rotation. All these would add up to 723 posts in all, the minister said. Of over 8,000 nurses, services of 3,614 nurses have already been regularised, now 723 others will be posted, and the remaining will be accommodated in the future by creating new positions, Subramanian added.
The nurses’ other demands including starting nursing colleges in all medical colleges will be implemented and maternity leave for nurses is being considered and will be fulfilled soon with the consent of chief minister, Subramanian said. The minister blamed the AIADMK government, led by the late J Jayalalithaa, for the contractual appointment of nurses. He claimed that during the AIADMK rule in 2014-15, the state recruited the nurses on a contractual basis assuring them regularisation after two years of service, he said.
The salary of around 500 nurses will be increased to Rs 18,000 as it could not be done earlier due to various reasons, the minister said and added that the nurses were happy after talks.
However, N Subin, general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Nurses Empowerment Association, said that these 723 postings were not new posts. “They were existing posts that remained unfilled for long, and now they have decided to fill it. As the talks failed, we are continuing our protest,” he said.