Nursing staff in five private hospitals in the district will go on strike from October 22 under the aegis of the Indian Nurses Association (INA) demanding revision of their pay scale as recommended in the Balaraman committee report, among others.
The INA gave formal strike notice to the managements of the Dhanalakshmi Hospital, Koyili Hospital, Ashirvad Hospital and Speciality Hospital at Kannur and Lourde Hospital at Taliparamba. INA office-bearers said that they were forced to go on strike in the hospitals as the managements of these hospitals violated the assurances given to them.
INA national secretary E.M. Vineeth Krishnan said here on Friday that pay scale revision as approved by the Balaraman committee report is among the INA’s major demands. He said that even staff nurses in these hospitals were getting a monthly salary of around Rs. 7500 each. Their workload is also heavy as nurse-patient ratio in these hospitals was 1:3 in intensive care units (ICU) and 1:20-25 in wards. Demanding three-shift duty schedule equivalent to that in government hospitals, he said that the INA was demanding 1:1 in ICU and 1:4 in wards. The INA also raised the demand for 10 per cent annual increment for senior nurses.
He also said that nurses were victims of arbitrary treatment of the hospital managements. Nearly 25 nurses were coerced by the managements into submitting their resignations from some of these hospitals, he alleged.
