The Kerala Private Hospitals’ Association (KPHA) has decided to face the upcoming State-wide strike by nursing staff by managing emergency services with the support of para-medical staff, doctors and medical students.
At a press conference here, KPHA leaders and heads of leading hospitals said no private hospital in the State would be closed against the backdrop of the United Nurses Association’s indefinite strike call from July 17. The KPHA also ruled out the possibility of initiating talks with representatives of the United Nurses Association to settle the strike.
Association general secretary Hussain Koya Thangal said nurses in private hospitals were given a 60% salary hike in recent times, and a further revision unmindful of the Industrial Relations Committee’s reports would not be feasible.
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“All the hospitals in Kerala are willing to implement the minimum wages norms as prescribed by the government. If any hospital is deviating from the rules, the government may easily expose them,” he said. Mr. Thangal alleged that the nurses were trying to cash in on the helplessness of hospital managements to win their demands.
Azad Moopen, chairman and managing director of Aster DM Healthcare, said a salary hike not recommended by the Labour Department in Kerala was difficult to be approved given the existing situation. “However, we are ready to wait for the Industrial Relation Committee’s final decision on the issue on July 20, and the nurses too should show such restraint, other than resorting to a strike to stall hospital services,” he said.
P.A. Lalitha, managing director of Kozhikode-based Malabar Hospital, said many newly graduate nurses lacked basic skills in the profession, and it was the on-the-job training at private hospitals that made them perfect. K.G. Alexander, chairman and chief physician of Baby Memorial Hospital, said the hospitals were being forced to adjust with available human resources in the sector, compromising the quality of services.
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