Many critically ill patients who were admitted to the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Monday were left unattended for hours. This happened because the hospital’s nurses had gone on an unspecified strike at 3p.m. for their demand regarding rectification of a difference in the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendation.

There was no advance in the communication between the nurses’ union and the hospital administration till late evening resulting in a crisis situation. AIIMS nurses are not going to back down till all their demands are met.

AIIMS has approximately 2,400 beds and almost 15% are in the ICU. Almost all of them were occupied when the strike was called. Doctors said that there is no one to attend the patients, even the critically ill patients. Many of them would die if the strike continues. Harish Kajla, who is heading the union said that the AIIMS Nurses’ Union is in talks with the hospital since a year demanding a rise in their initial pay. The Union health ministry himself had assured last year that their demand would be met. However, they have turned it down suddenly, leaving them with no other option except to go on strike.

Within hours of the strike, the AIIMS administration issued a contingency plan for patient management. It also talked about getting assistance from Delhi Police for the safety of patients and nurses. The order stated that efforts will be made to arrange interns, final year MBBS and BSc and MSc nursing students in various patient care areas in addition to utilising medical, technical and nursing staff from several research projects.

AIIMS has almost 5,000 nurses and their union claimed that many of them are participating in the strike and that the strike would not end till their demands are met. The nursing union’s demands no hiring of the critical workforce on a contract basis.

Dr Randeep Guleria, AIIMS director released a video message appealing to the nurses to get back to work. He said that a real nurse would never abandon their patients or healthcare workers who are admitted in hospital and seeking care.

He further added that the nurses’ union has 23 demands. Almost all of the demands are met by the AIIMS administration and the government. There is only one demand that they have insisted upon and is a perceived irregularity in the fixation of the initial pay in the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations concerned. They are currently having the Seventh Pay Commission and that is being implemented and several meetings have also been held with the nurses’ union and their representatives. The meetings were not only by the AIIMS administration but also with the economic adviser in the ministry of health and family welfare, along with the representatives of the department of expenditure and also with the person who had drafted the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. He himself was present in the meeting and explained to the nurses’ union that the explanation is not correct and is beyond the facility of the gazette notification. However, the nurses’ union wanted a hike in their salary and the government said that they would look at it as a new demand and will ask the department of expenditure to consider it.

He also added that in the current situation, the country is going through many hardships and people are accepting pay cuts and also having loss of jobs. During this time, the nurses’ union’s demand for an increase in salary was in appropriate.

Source: ET Healthworld