HYDERABAD: Around 220 nurses working at Gandhi Hospital on an outsourcing basis will boycott duties from Saturday, demanding that their services at the State’s dedicated Covid facility be regularised.
On Friday morning, several outsourced nurses staged a dharna outside the office complex of Director of Medical Education (DME), Dr K Ramesh Reddy, at Koti, and submitted a representation to the DME stating their demands. Some of the nurses were detained by the police and were released later .
The boycott of duty would increase work pressure on other nurses and healthcare staff at Gandhi Hospital, where over 700 Covid patients are being treated. Apart from the 220 nurses set to boycott duty, the hospital has around 140 nurses on pay roll and 100 recently-recruited outsourced nurses.
The issue stems from a recent development, wherein the State government had recruited nurses on an outsourcing basis at Gandhi Hospital with a salary of `25,140 per month for staff nurses and `29,760 for head nurses.
This has irked existing outsourced (staff) nurses in the hospital, who have been working for the past 13 years with a take-home salary of `15,000. They are also infuriated by the fact that a few of the recently-recruited nurses have less work experience than them, and yet have been recruited for a higher post of the head nurse.
Speaking to Express, one of the protesting nurses said, “We are putting us and our families at risk by treating Covid-19 patients. It has been over four years since we received a salary hike. The State government must increase our salary and regularise our services.”
M Narsimha, president of the TS Medical Contract Employees and Workers Union said, “The recently-recruited nurses are being given higher salaries those who have been working here for 13 years. This is unjust.”
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