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As the ceasework agitation by contractual nurses entered the eighth day on Sunday, virtually paralysing health services in the State, they have now looked up to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for a solution.
Expressing lack of faith in the Health Department, which they have accused of resorting to misleading tactics, the nurses said the Chief Minister should immediately intervene.
While over 2,200 contractual nurses are on strike and squatting in Bhubaneswar, more than 70 of them have resorted to hunger strike. Around 20 nurses, on hunger strike, have been hospitalised in the last two days. “As many as 10 nurses had to be taken to hospitals on Sunday as their condition deteriorated,” general secretary of the All Odisha Contractual Nurses’ Association Shibani Das said.
The nurses have sought to meet Naveen to present their grievances. “The CM had convened a high-level meeting in October last year and directed the Health Department to create 6,963 posts of staff nurses. The order is yet to be implemented. We also want to put forth our genuine problems of low pay and non-regularisation of jobs before him,” Das said.
Meanwhile, SCB Medical College and Hospital along with Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre (AHRCC) and Sishu Bhawan have virtually slipped into coma as the authorities are struggling to manage the situation with nursing students.
Surgeries in the operation theatres at the SCB have been hit due to shortage of nursing staff. In the wards too, patients have complained of lack of timely attention. Patient attendance at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology wing has also come down. The hospital authorities have pressed more than 300 nursing students, drawn from private institutions in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, to deal with the situation.
At AHRCC, the situation is similar with more than 40 of the 65 available nursing staff going on strike. The hospital authorities have also deployed nursing students from the private institutions. “The OTs and day care services are functioning normally. We have extended the duty hours of the doctors and senior residents so that they can guide the nursing students,” Director Prof. Sukdev Nayak said.
As the Sishu Bhawan struggles to cope with the loss of nursing staff, the issue has generated a lot of heat with a complaint being lodged by the public at Lalbag Police Station alleging negligence in treatment. Police have forwarded the complaint to the Collector, Cuttack, and the superintendent of Sishu Bhawan.
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