AIIMS nurses go on indefinite strike; don't go during pandemic: Hospital

New Delhi: As nurses and parademics of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences walked out in a flash indefinite strike on Monday over a list of demands it had placed before the administration, many photos of wards with just patients and no nursing staff went viral on social media.

The Nurses Union of AIIMS announced the strike on Monday after long-running talks over key issues such as irregularities in implementing the Sixth Pay Commission and the hiring of contractual nurses failed to yield results.

But even as AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria addressed the nursing staff in a recorded video, the administration of the hospital on Monday issued a statement, saying the Nurses' Union had "abandoned many critically ill patients". The hospital added that the movement is over a "perceived anomaly of the fixation of the initial pay related to the sixth pay commission of 2006.

There are close to 5,000 paramedics in the premier medical institution.

The union president alleged that instead of looking into the grievances of the nurses and the paramedics, the administration of AIIMS took an alternative route and started employing contractual paramedics.

However, responding to the strike notice of the Nurses union, AIIMS director, Dr Randeep Guleria addressed the nursing staff in a video where he said the hospital was proud of all the work they had put in. He also claimed that the administration had accepted "most of the 23 demands" put forward by the Nurses Union.

But Fameer CK, General Secretary of the AIIMS Nurses Union told a news channel, "Till recently, we were told our demands were being considered. Key among them were the Sixth Pay Commission's payouts and the hiring of contractual workers. Now we've been informed that interviews were held just today to recruit contractual workers. We have utmost respect for Prof Randeep Guleria. But if he claims all our demands have already been met, then what were all the recent assurances about?"

"Unfortunately, in this time of the pandemic, the nurses' union has gone on a strike. 2020 has also been declared by the WHO as the year of the nurse and the midwife," Dr Guleria said.

In a letter to the administration, the nurses' union wrote to the AIIMS director and said that despite raising the issue no concrete decision has been taken by the administration.

And as the hospital prepares for major services to be hit or curtailed in light of the strike, the administration has assured adequate security for those nurses who wish to continue their duty, according to a notice from Medical Superintendent Dr DK Sharma.

The circular added that the CFO will redeploy all available nursing staff in various patient care services to ensure round the clock availability of maximum nursing staff in various inpatient wards and ICUs to ensure continuity of hospitalised patients.

Moreover, the administration has also decided to deploy final year MBBS students, Interns along with final year undergraduate and postgraduate nursing students from the Principal College of Nursing to cope with the staff shortage.

Among services that are expected to be hit due to the strike, the circular said Emergency services and Operation Theatre services will see some curtailment and the degree of curtailment will depend on the availability of willing nursing staff.

The admin in its circular has said that all efforts will be made so that inpatient services/patients are not affected. "All efforts will be made by heads of respective clinical departments to advise all resident doctors to provide the best possible monitoring, care and treatment..."

The hospital administration, in its public statement on the matter, said, "AIIMS administration has appealed to the Nurses' Union not to go on strike during the crisis of the pandemic and to return to patient care immediately.