With around 200 nurses on strike since Friday, patients at the Osmania General Hospital, Hyderabad, are having a tough time. The agitators are protesting against the management’s decision to suspend a few nurses after another nurse Swarana Kumari attempted suicide on Monday because of alleged harassment by her colleagues, as she was a supporter of Telangana.
Around 40 head nurses and 160 staff nurses stayed away from ward duties and out-patient service on Tuesday. “We are helpless, there are no experienced nurses to take care of my son and nobody is helping us here,” said G. Narasing Rao, of Mahbubnagar. The hospital authorities have failed to make proper arrangements for in-patients.
“My wife has been struggling since Saturday as there are no nurses attending to us,” said D. Satyanarayana, of old city. The nurses on Tuesday maintained that they would not return to their duties till the director of medical education accepted their demands and transferred Ms Swarana Kumari — as most nurses refused to work with her — and rescinded the decision of suspending few nurses. “We had given the director four days to decide on the transfer of Ms Swarana Kumari,” said Ms Anna-mma, president of the Osmania Unit Nurses Association. According to director of medical education B. Vasanth Prasad, a committee comprising several doctors will take two weeks to check the entire report filed by the nurses of Osmania Hospital against Ms Swarana Kumari.