Nurses call off strike after assurance of action by MCD

The nurses at municipal corporation-run hospitals called off their strike on Thursday evening after the authorities assured their demands will be promptly looked into.

The nurses had launched into an indefinite strike on Monday demanding their due promotions and recruitment of more staff to tackle acute shortage of staff across the hospitals.

“Chairman Standing Committee Mohan Bhardwaj informed that nurses has called off the strike after meeting him regarding their demands,” said a senior official, North Delhi Municipal Corporation.

The corporation has invited names from the nurses’ union of members whose promotions are due and the names have been missed in the earlier list. The fresh list will be updated after looking into the records of the nurses.

Recruitment process
The North Corporation has also promised to start the recruitment process to fill up the vacant posts within 15 days, according to the official.

“We decided to call off the strike after the authorities assured our demands will be met with. The authorities do not pay heed to the circumstances under which we are working. The promotion of senior nurses are stuck for years but the demands are looked into,” said a member of Delhi Nurses Union.

“We have been forced to agitate because of the long pending issues,” the nurse added. 

The hospitals where nurses went on strike include Bara Hindu Rao Hospital, Swami Dayanand Hospital, Kasturba Hospital and Rajan Babu TB Hospital.

Patients were inconvenienced as the strike had entered its fourth day. Hospitals tried to tackle the situation with contractual workers.

The most affected hospital was Bara Hindu Rao Hospital where most nurses are on regular payroll.

“We repeatedly communicated to the nurses to continue with their duties as patients were suffering. The majority of nurses were from Bara Hindu Rao Hospital.

The promotions of nurses was already in the process. More staff have also been recruited recently to gap the bridge,” said a senior administative official at Bara Hindu Rao Hospital.