Nurses' strike hits private hospitals in Kerala's Thrissur

THRISSUR: Nurses in nearly 45 private hospitals located in Thrissur district launched an indefinite strike on Monday as a prelude to a statewide agitation to press for their demands for wage hike.
According to the leaders of the United Nurses Association (UNA), who have given the call for the strike, they launched the strike after failure of the mediation talks initiated by district collector Dr A Kowsigan on Sunday night.They said that the strike would expand to include other districts if the talks proposed to be conducted by labour minister Ramakrishnan also failed to yield a settlement.
The leaders of the nurses, along with the hospital managements, conceded that the strike has affected the functioning of the hospitals. According to the hospital management representatives, around 60 to 80 per cent of the nurses are on strike in some of the affected hospitals. The nurses also took out a march to the collectorate.
The management representatives said that even though they have not blocked fresh intake of patients, they are trying to limit the admission only to serious cases. The nurses' association, which is carrying out the strike, claims to have taken steps to ensure that the emergency care and the ICUs are not affected, by asking a limited number of nurses to report for duty.
UNA president Jasmin Shah said the nurses in the private hospitals in the state were getting paltry wages of only about Rs 300 per day, and that it must be hiked to at least Rs 1000. The nurses are also demanding that their monthly minimum wages must be hiked to at least Rs 20,000 from the current level of Rs 10,000.
According to Kerala Hospitals' Association president Dr P K Muhammed Rasheed, wages of the nurses were revised in 2013, and as per the norms set under the Minimum Wages Act, the next revision should be in 2018. He said that the managements were willing to hike the minimum wages to Rs 14,000, but the striking nurses insisted that it must be at least Rs 18,000.
The district collector said that the district medical officer (DMO) has been directed to take measures to ensure that needy patients are not deprived of treatment. The hospitals in the government sector, including the government medical college hospital, have also been asked to ready themselves to take care of more patients.
Dr Kowsigan said that the staff at the toll plaza at Paliakkara has been asked to keep the traffic lane for ambulances free, so that the patients wanting to shift from private hospitals to government hospitals would not face any traffic blockage.
Meanwhile, the Agriculture Minister V S Sunilkumar has convened a meeting of the leaders of the striking nurses for talks late in the afternoon to explore the possibilities of ending the agitation.