Opposed to outsoursing of staff, nurses in city government hospitals and medical institutions have been demanding regularisation for some time now, which culminated into a recent agitation by nurses’ associations near the Delhi Secretariat. GK Khurana, secretary general, All India Government Nurses Federation, in a conversation with Ashish Srivastava, spells out the demands of city nurses, holding the government liable of ignoring the concerns of nurses dispensing essential services to the citizens. Excerpts:
An agitation was held recently by city nurses near the Secretariat. At the heart of the matter was the increasing outsourcing in the cadre. What are your views on this?
The incumbent government in Delhi, in their election manifesto, said they were opposed to the contractualisation of jobs, promising that all contractual jobs will be regularised. Instead, now, staff is being outsourced rather than filling regular posts. This way, the senior nursing cadre will vanish, with no feeder cadre to take their place. The nursing profession comes under essential services and such services cannot be outsourced. This is against the policy adopted by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2016, advocting zero outsourcing of nursing staff in all medical institutions. The government cannot play with lives of patients and people.
The government is allegedly, resorting to contractualisation and outsourcing of nurses rather than creating new posts. How is this affecting nursing services and patient care?
Similar strategies are being adopted across the country. Recruitment of nurses through outsourcing is disastrous. It is a highly technical profession, with the grave responsibility of protecting lives and promoting health. It is very difficult to certify the authenticity of outsourcing agencies. A contractor may engage an unqualified person for the job. The city government has ignored improving quality of nursing services. Many new departments are opened without creation of posts of nursing cadres following SIU (Staff Inspectio Unit)norms. No regular recruitment has been conducted for nurses by the government for over a decade despite a large number of senior cadre retiring. We don’t understand on what basis the Delhi government claims to provide the best health services in the country.
Nurses’ associations claim that staff in MCD-run and other health institutions have not received promotion in very long. Why are the promotions delayed?
Nurses who had joined in June 1986, now on the verge of retirement, are still waiting for their first promotion in MCD-run institutions. There are similar complaints from Delhi government-run hospitals too. There have been no promotions for senior posts of nursing staff in almost all MCD and city government-run hospitals. Nearly 100% posts of Deputy Nursing Superintendents and 95% posts of Assistant Nursing Superintendents are lying vacant for the last 12 years. The higher ups have no interest in the nurses’ welfare. The government doesn’t see nursing as an independent and essential service but as a mere cog in the medical infrastructure.
There has been a decline in the number of nurses conferred with the National Florence Nightingale award for impeccable service. The city government has also held back state awards for years. Your comments?
Nurses are perhaps the only services operating on the ground, either during major health crises, like pandemics, or during natural disasters and calamities. Though they have been called the backbone of the health system, even by the Prime Minister and the World Health Organization, they are not held in that regard. We do not get our due appreciation or remuneration. The national award was curtailed from 51 to 15. The AAP government too, has stopped the state awards since 2015. This shows how much significance the government associates with our proffesion. We deserve better working conditions.