Delhi's HAHC nurses continue to protest sacking, authorities say claims fabricated
NEW DELHI: While the nurses of the Hakeem Abdul Hameed Centenary Hospital (HAHC) continued their protest against the termination of 84 colleagues without any prior notice for raising safety concerns, hospital authorities were quick to dismiss the claims as false and fabricated.
The nurses who continued their protest outside the hospital premises said that they will continue to do so till their demands are met.
“We will continue to sit in protest tomorrow as well.
There should be a proper way of addressing the nurses. They made us work in Covid wards, some even got infected and now they are getting rid of us without any prior notice,” said a nurse who is still an employee of the hospital.
She said she’d joined the protest to show support for her colleagues who lost their jobs.
The administration, however, swiftly denied these allegations. While the staff said that they were sacked, the hospital’s medical superintendent (MS) noted that the 84 nurses were let go off because their contracts had expired.
“Some of their contracts expired back in March, April and others in June and even July. Due to this lockdown, the staff couldn’t be handed over the letter. We handed them over when they resumed services. For those whose contracts had expired and still chose to come to work – it was a voluntary decision and all of them have been paid salaries.
"Those who were supposed to work as per the contract, yet didn’t turn up, their salaries were deducted,” said Dr Sunil Kohli, MS, HAHC.
Dr Kohli added that among the 84 nurses, 33 have already been given new appointment letters to resume their service.
PPEs being provided are of highest quality, says MS
The medical superintendent also said that the PPEs being provided to the nurses are of the highest quality available and that the only problem is providing them with an adequate quarantine facility.