NEW DELHI: On the day when 30 nurses received top honours in their profession, the Florence Nightingale Award, an order by the health ministry disheartened their colleagues in four Central hospitals in the city.
According to the order, the ministry dissolved the post of Deputy Nursing Superintendent (DNS) at four centre-run hospitals, Safdarjung, Ram Manohar Lohia, Lady Hardinge and Kalawati Saran. The post merged them with the Assistant Nursing Superintendent (ANS), which downgraded 40 nursing professionals to a rank lower than their position.
“I convey the approval of the competent authority to merge the two posts as Assistant Nursing Superintendent (ANS) at Level-10 with immediate effect. This is with the approval of Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure,” said the order, a copy of which TNIE accessed.
The nursing professionals have questioned the decision, saying it is against the government’s own norms and will break the hierarchy. “It is a big blow for the nursing profession. Never in history has a promotional post merged with the feeder cadre and the promotional post is downgraded. It’s like a person who is holding the post of deputy director being ordered to serve as an assistant director from the next day. It is humiliating,” said Anita Panwar, president, the All India Government Nurses’ Federation.
“Both the positions are different in the hierarchy and have separate recruitment rules. One is a feeder cadre and the other is a promotional post. This is injustice,” said Panwar. “The DNS is our third promotion in clinical nursing. The merger will put a stop to the growth in the nursing cadre. The Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) also states that a government employee should get three promotions in service time,” said Panwar.
The nurses also highlighted that the responsibilities entailing the posts cannot be clubbed posts-merger. “In the absence of DNS, who will manage the administrative work since the ANS are responsible for only effectively managing the patient care mechanism,” asked a nurse.
Seven ANS are under one DNS. One section is responsible for preparing the duty roster of nurses, handling medico-legal cases, all logistics of the hospital, the supervision of purchase, storage and management of drugs and medical items, said Panwar.