Patiala: An indefinite nursing strike disrupted health services at Punjab’s three govt medical colleges for the third consecutive day on Saturday, as more than 1,500 nurses under the United Nurses Association (UNA) of Punjab defied a state govt order invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA). The strike covered Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals in Patiala, Amritsar and Mohali, severely disrupting in-patient care, while outpatient departments continued to function. The impact was most acute at Government Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, a tertiary referral centre, where around 500 nurses were on strike. The emergency ward, which routinely deployed 25 nurses, operated with five. Life-critical units including the labour room, neonatal nursery, women and child department and neurology IPD were badly affected. Patients referred from Mata Kaushalya Hospital and peripheral facilities bore the brunt.Rajindra hospital Patiala has IPD services of around 990 patients per day, whereas the daily OPD around 3200 patients per day approximately. There are around 1,150 Beds including of Super-specialty hospital and the occupancy remains almost full most of the departments including medicine, Chest and TB, Eye, ENT, Ortho and others. Dr Vishal Chopra, Medical Superintendent at govt Rajindra hospital said, “Around 600 nursing staff are on strike currently, but we are managing things as services are being availed from our nursing interns and the final year nursing students working under guidance. Similarly, we have requested to three private colleges to provide us with the nursing interns and final year students.”The dispute stemmed from a 2021 state govt decision that reclassified nursing staff from Level-7 (Grade Pay Rs 4,600) to Level-5 (Grade Pay Rs 2,800), cutting entry-level monthly salaries by Rs 15,000 to Rs 18,000, nearly 50 per cent. Nurses said counterparts in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh (UT) received the Rs 4,600 Grade Pay, the standard under the 7th Central Pay Commission. A nurse in Punjab currently drew approximately Rs 29,200 per month. Jhujhar Singh, Patron of UNA Punjab, said the association would not relent. “It is only in Punjab where nursing staff receive this low pay. During Covid, we gave our best. Our protest will continue indefinitely until the Rs 4,600 Grade Pay is restored,” he said. The UNA indicated it may seek solidarity from other nursing cadres across the state.A govt panel held talks with union leaders on Friday, but the meeting ended without resolution. The union members claimed that the panel disclosed that a Special Finance Secretary, part of a three-member committee formed to examine the nurses’ demands, would return only on May 4, and sought suspension of the strike until then. The union declined. “The government has already admitted in high-level meetings that our demand is legally and morally justified. Yet they invoke ESMA instead of issuing the correction order,” said Arti Bali, president of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nursing Union Patiala and Chairperson, UNA.UNA state president Ramanjit Singh Gill described the strike as a last resort after five to six years of petitions to successive govts. The ESMA notification, issued late on March 25, a day before the scheduled strike, was openly defied. Emergency services were managed by skeletal staff, but the union warned the crisis would intensify unless the govt formally restored the Rs 4,600 Grade Pay without further delay.MSID: 129864219 413 |
