MADURAI: Upset with the DMK government for not fulfilling its promise to regularise nurses appointed on contract in the health department, the Tamil Nadu Nurses Empowerment Association has announced a protest in Madurai on December 4. The association also said it will launch a statewide hunger strike in Chennai on December 18.
Addressing the executive committee meeting of the association in Madurai, its general secretary N Subin said nurses form the backbone of the healthcare system but their working conditions have deteriorated in recent years.
“We are worried about the status of nurses. It is distressing that the government terminated nurses recruited through the Medical Services Recruitment Board in December 2022,” he said.
These nurses, Subin noted, were appointed on an ad hoc basis to manage the pandemic, and their sudden removal has caused deep concern among frontline workers. He also said the DMK had, during the 2021 Assembly election, promised to regularise around 8,000 nurses employed on a contractual basis, but the commitment remains unfulfilled.