MADURAI: Left high and dry in PPE suits for 12 hours in the night with no means to quench their thirst or to attend nature’s call, a group of nurses at Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) have raised their voice against the night-duty system.
Sources said that for the past four weeks, GRH nurses on Covid duty work in three shifts – 7.30 am to 1.30 pm, 1.30 pm to 7.30 pm and 7.30 pm to 7.30 am. Terming the 12-hour night shift extremely exhaustive, one of the nurses who completed the duty last month said that they could neither eat, drink water nor to attend nature’s call wearing PPE suit. She also said that the suit leaves them dehydrated. “What’s worse, during monthly periods, nurses could not change their sanitary pads for half a day, until they complete the duty and remove the PPE suits,” she said.
Another nurse said that as per the present arrangement, senior nurses are posted in morning shift while junior nurses, especially those working for consolidated pay, are allotted the 12-hour night duty. “When we requested equal shift hours (three shifts of eight hours each), the matrons informed us that the senior nurses would find it difficult to have their breakfast as early as 5.30 am before starting work and thus eight-hour shifts were not feasible,” she pointed out.
A nurse, who, on Saturday, was assigned the night duty starting Sunday, claimed that the bias shown in duty allocation, forcing junior nurses to work for twice the number of hours than the senior nurses would affect their morale and directly hit patient care. She added that senior nurses are usually exempted from Covid duty due to age factor and comorbidities and regular wards continue to function simultaneously.
“Consequently, the number of nurses available on call for Covid duty is lesser and the number of Covid duty shifts has been brought down to three this time, until fresh recruitments are made,” the nurse added.
During the first wave of Covid-19 last year, GRH nurses worked at the Covid wards in four shifts, spanning six hours each – 7.30 am to 1.30 pm, 1.30 pm to 7.30 pm, 7.30 pm to 1.30 am, 1.30 am to 7.30 am.
When contacted, the Grade I Nursing Superintendent at GRH Kaleeswari said that a new duty roaster of four shifts of six hours each was being prepared. She assured that it would come into effect from Sunday.