AIIMS emergency closed for 1st time as nurses go on strike
For the first time in the history of AIIMS, its emergency and OT services were closed on Friday as around 5,000 nurses went on mass casual leave demanding higher pay. While around 90 surgeries were postponed, several patients were forced to visit other hospitals. The nurses have also threatened to go on an indefinite strike from March 27.
A mass casual leave by around 5,000 nurses at AIIMS today had a crippling effect on services offered to the patients as the emergency unit remained shut, while nearly 90 surgeries were postponed.Several patients were forced to visit other hospitals in the wake of the strike nurses went on, even as the AIIMS authorities likened the protest to "blackmailing and arm-twisting" of administration at the cost of poor patients.The nurses union at the premier hospital have been demanding higher pay than that recommended by the 7th Central Pay Commission.They have also threatened to go on an indefinite strike from March 27 if their demands for revision of pay scales and a hike in allowances are not met, even as AIIMS officials said they have forwarded their demands to the Health Ministry.Majority of the patients approaching the AIIMS and trauma centre for emergency treatment today were forced to go to the nearby Safdarjung hospital and others hospitals.The security guards deployed at the entrance of AIIMS turned away patients from the emergency department, which treats around 2,000 patients daily.Also Read || 7th pay commission: Demanding better pay, 5,000 AIIMS nurses go on leave, emergency services shut down || Those patients and their kin who managed to get inside during the early hours of the day had to spend hours waiting for doctors to see them.A 70-year-old Raani Bai, who suffers from kidney disease and had come all the way from Patna to be treated at AIIMS, said she had to wait for almost three hours before being forced to go to Safdarjung."We waited thinking the services would resume but then we were forced to go take our mother to Safdarjung as her condition was worsening," said Bais son.Several other patients who came from across the country were at the receiving end as they were unaware of the strike call.AIIMS administration said they have forwarded the demands of the nurses to the Health Ministry and requested it to convene a meeting with the Ministry of Finance to resolve the matter."The AIIMS administration has already revised the pay scales for all its employees including the nurses as per the recommendations of the 7th CPC."The administration has also agreed to the other demands of the Nurses Union including the change of nomenclature from staff nurse to nursing officer as well as their demands for study leave.