Chennai: More than 2,000 staff nurses, recruited through the Medical Recruitment Board Tamil Nadu from across the state, called off their two-day long protest after talks with Health Minister C. Vijayabhaskar who assured that their services will be regularized gradually.
Though the strike continued for the second day, services in the government hospitals and public health centres in the city remained unaffected as the doctors and the staff on duty worked double shifts on Monday and Tuesday to prevent disruptions in the discharge of services.
The nurses also presented the formal notice directed to the Director of Medical Services regarding the protest a month ago after officials alleged that there was no formal communication about the strike.
After two-hour long talks with the minister, the nurses called off their protest a little before 9 pm and announced that they will resume work on Wednesday. “We had placed our demands in front of the authorities more than a month ago regarding the regularization of services with a time-scale pay on an 8-hour shift basis”, S Aishwarya, joint secretary, MRB Nurses’ Empowerment Association, said.
After the protest on Monday, Director of Medical Education Dr A Edwin Joe, Director of Medical Services Dr M R Enbasekaran and Director of Public Health Dr K Kolandaswamy called on the association representative for talks. Around ten members from the association discussed the issue with the directors. Officials said the nurses were appointed based on the same regulations as it is done across the country and nurses would be eligible for a permanent post only after two years of service. “After two years of service, the services of nurses are regularised based on the availability of vacancies and seniority. The sudden demands of all nurses to be given increment in the salary and permanency in the post have been communicated to the government. However, the pay and service regularization is as per the regulations”, said Dr M R Enbasekaran.
Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan also called on around 20 representatives from the association to discuss their demands. The meeting continued till the filing of the report and nurses had not called off the agitation. However, a section of protesting nurses said they would continue with their agitation till their demands are met. They said they don't agree with the other section who have announced that they would call of the protests.
Min assures nurses to consider demands
The Health minister addressed the press on Tuesday regarding the nurses’ protest stating that the State Health Department would regularise them as per procedure. Nurses are being given the pay and regularisation is done according to the regulations set by the Government of India, he said.
The nurses are recruited by the Medical Recruitment Board after an entrance test and based on the consolidated marks, the appointment is decided. The contract based appointment is being done for all the nurses all over the India. All the nurses who were appointed through Medical Recruitment Board are given regularisation after two years of service based on seniority and vacancy available, he said.
Around 6,000 nurses who were recruited in 2015 have been regularised, whereas for the rest 200 of them, the services will be made regular within this week, Health Minister said.
Claiming that government is taking all measures to provide for the demands of all the personnel working under the State Health department, the minister assured the nurses that the demands will be considered and the nurses should see that such actions do not affect the services to the patients at the government hospitals.
