Nurses' Strike in Ludhiana

Protesting against the recommendations of the sixth pay commission and seeking pay parity, and payment of certain allowances among other assorted demands, around 200 staff nurses working at civil and government hospitals have gone on strike from Saturday.

Nurses under the banner of Punjab Nurses' Association decided to boycott work demanding the acceptance of their long-pending demands. On the third consecutive day of their protest, almost 200 government nurses carried on a protest march from the Civil Hospital to Jagraon Bridge on Saturday.

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The employees working under the National Health Mission have already been on strike for the past one month. The demands of the protesters included issues like:

• Regularisation of their services
• Increase in salary to ensure pay parity
• Payment of certain allowances

As per recent media reports, the patient service at Mother and Child Hospital and Civil Hospital have been facing serious setback due to the ongoing protest of the staff nurses.

They also demanded that the name of their post should be changed from Staff Nurse to Nursing Officer. Moreover, they have been placed in Grade C in the Sixth Pay Commission and their demand is to include them in Grade B.

Due to the absence of the nurses, contractual nursing staff and final year nursing students who have been called from Mohan Dai Oswal had to be deployed in the wards of Mother and Child Hospital. However, C-section cases needed trained staff. Hence, such cases are being referred to either Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, or Christian Medical College and Hospital and currently, the hospital is not accepting any surgical cases, reports The Tribune.

Punjab Nurses' Association district president Asha told Hindustan Times, "Rather than increase the pay grade of nurses, our pay has been reduced under the sixth pay commission. Our strike will continue till our demands are fulfilled by the government."

"We will be on a complete strike till our demands are met. We have been struggling for our demands since long and no option was left but to strike our work," said Staff Nurse Paramjit Kaur.

Meanwhile, doctors are facing difficulties in operating in the absence of nurses. According to a daily, a doctor of Mother and Child Hospital stated that due to the strike by the staff nurses they are unable to provide healthcare services.

"Most affected are the cases where surgery is required for delivery. Presently no such cases are being taken by us and they are referred to either Patiala or CMCH as we do not want the patients to suffer," he added.