Pune: Non-emergency admissions and planned surgeries, among other services, remained suspended at Sassoon General Hospital as the nurses’ strike demanding equal pay and nursing allowance continued at 50 state-run health hubs in Maharashtra for the fourth day on Monday.The nurses have demanded a meeting with CM Devendra Fadnavis, health minister Prakash Abitkar and medical education minister Hasan Mushrif to secure a written assurance on their demands. The strike would only be called off once this assurance was provided, they said.Sumitra Tote, secretary of the Maharashtra State Nurses Association (MSNA), said: “We have been demanding a meeting with the three (Fadnavis, Abitkar and Mushrif) for a long time, but did not get an appointment. When our members tried to meet with the ministers, we were given only two minutes, that too unofficially.” TOI’s calls to Mushrif and Abitkar remained unanswered till going to press. Latur-headquartered MSNA, which has 50,000 registered members, has been on a statewide agitation since July 18 (Friday) to protest persistent pay discrepancies under the 7th Pay Commission and the recent govt resolution regarding the contractual recruitment of nurses.Over the years, multiple committees continued to ignore the injustices done to ground workers, MSNA president Manisha Shinde said. “Despite Bakshi committee’s part 2, assistant nursing superintendents, sister in-charges, clinical instructors and paediatric nurses in the health department were excluded in the revised pay scales for equivalent positions,” she alleged.At Sassoon hospital, hospital staff confirmed of receiving instructions to discharge patients who no longer required hospitalisation. Arifa Shaikh, MSNA president (Pune Chapter) at BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospitals, said, “The workers, including nurses, are directly involved in patient care. They are in direct contact with HIV and TB patients, risking their own lives. Clinical instructors also play a crucial role in educating future nurses.““Nurses now feel consistently neglected,” Shaikh said, citing ongoing pay discrepancies as evidence of the neglect. “This disregard has fuelled demands for equal benefits,” she added.
