NEW DELHI: The nurses association of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML) has threatened a protest followed by an indefinite strike from Thursday onwards against the long-pending demands which the hospital administration has been ignoring, they said.
The association has prepared an 11-pointer demand which they have put forth before the RML administration and conveyed that no action over them would result in a mass strike. “We have tried several times to meet the Medical Superintendent and Deputy Director of Administration but they don’t have time to hear us.
The last meeting with additional MS was not fruitful. No demands have been met and no action has been taken which are mentioned in the meeting. We nurses are totally ignored,” Arun GS, President of, RML Nurses Union, said. “Since the administration is taking no notice of our problems, a collective decision was taken to protest from October 12 for 2 hours daily till October 18.
After that, the protest will intensify with two days of mass casual leave with hunger strike and after that we are going on an indefinite strike on October 21 onwards,” he added. According to the nurses, they are agitated over the recent suspension of a senior nursing officer, vacancy in the cadre despite sanctioned strength, and no assigned place for the association’s office even though the body is legitimately registered.
“We already conducted a black ribbon protest to revoke the suspension without hampering patient care but the administration didn’t call a single meeting to discuss the matter. The administration is autocratic towards nursing personnel issues and concerns,” said Arun.
Besides, the nurses also raised that the administration is not giving them NOC to higher education and making different rules without adhering to the central government guidelines. “The nurses are completely ignored. We have different rules and regulations, and special protocols that are unfair and partially harmful to the entire nursing profession. We are forced to go for the protest without any other options left,” Arun said.