If you live in New Delhi or surrounding areas, you better get in shape and make it quick. That's because in less than 10 days you will wish you had never fallen sick or at least had tons of money to pay private hospital bills.

A scene from RML hospital in Delhi. Source: Indian Express

On February 26th all major and minor government hospitals in the capital will face an amazing staff scarcity; the day marks the first 'mass casual leave' by government nurses in the past few decades.

It's not just Delhi, nurses from all government hospitals across the country will be joining them.

Just that the impact will be stronger in the capital because all state government employees are joining the central government employees; a move that means a complete shut-down of medical services.

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This means that hospitals including AIIMS, Ram Manohar Lohia (RML), Safdurjung and GTB will be functioning with only skeleton staff and almost no nurses.

100% of AIIMS nursing staff has notified that they will be part of the mass casual leave

Savour this, RML on a usual day has more than 600 of its 1000+ permanent nurses working across shifts manning 120 departments. On 26th, they will not have any permanent nursing staff to attend to over 7,000 patients who visit the hospital daily.

You may feel angry at the nurses now; after all government servants they are. How dare they go on a strike? That too while handling patient care?

Well, that's the only consideration which has delayed this strike till now

The agitation which has been led by various nurses' organisations began around the time when the recommendations for the 7th Pay Commission were submitted to the government.

The representatives for All India Government Nurses Federation have since agitated multiple times and requested meetings with government but no appointment was provided.

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Finally on February 12, they began a relay hunger strike at Delhi's Jantar Mantar - where nurses from various institutions are taking turns and doing hunger strikes.

The organisation has also warned of an indefinite strike starting March 15, if their demands are not met which means that a temporary shut down of services.

Here are some of the demands that the nurses have:

*Risk allowance

* Night Shift allowance

* 5 Day work week for nurses in Railway Hospitals

* Reinstatement of B. Sc and higher education allowances

* Revisal of entry level grade pay

Nurses are the primary level of health care and come in direct contact with patients and diseases including Ebola, Swine flue and more. Therefore, their demand for risk allowance can be considered legit.

The fact that higher education is promoted in almost all government sectors with increased allowances, removal of B.Sc. allowance is unfair too. Nurses are also the section which witnessed the downgrading of nursing superintendents.

Did you know nurses in Railway hospitals just get 4 weekly offs every month even though they put in more work hours than other central government employees.

Government's reasoning for such pay commission recommendations

Goverment has justified its recommendations saying that government nurses are already paid higher than private nurses.

The nurses argue that the patient to nurse ratio is private institutions is also low with their highest ratio (1 nurse : 14 patients) even lower than their own lowest ratio in the wards (which is around 1 nurse to 20-25 patients). And even at this salary, nurses working in India get paid much lower than the international counterparts. This leads to massive brain drain.

All this could have been avoided if Government just granted them a hearing

We don't think government should give into any demands under pressure, but to hear them out is the least they could do. What's the point in stretching the entire episode so much that it becomes a confrontation. Also, any such agitation if handled wrongly can disintegrate into a free-for-all brawl involving all government servants.

The government brands the nurses as 'Anti-Nationals'

You are the government, some of the people - even your own - are agitating against your policies, what do you do? You call them Anti-nationals.

AIGNF

The same government which did take time out to sort the matter, took the easy route out and sent circulars to all major hospitals saying that any nurse who is part of this exercise will be considered as acting against the nation and in breach of ESMA (Essential Service Maintenance Act). This has further agitated the nurses who felt further insulted.

As of now, many hospitals have received CL applications from almost 100 per cent of their nursing staff and the mass leave is on schedule. But the ultimate losers here will be the patients who will not have anyone to take care of them.