Srinagar, June 4: Nursing staff at associated hospitals of Government Medical College today held one hour token strike at GMC premises here to protest alleged government ‘apathy’ with regards to their long pending issues.
Nurses from Lala Ded Maternity Hospital, SKIMS Medical College Bemina and Dental College under the banner of All Jammu and Kashmir Nurses Association (JKNA) gathered at GMC premises here and staged demonstrations to press for their demands.
They said incase government fail to address their issues, they will go for indefinite strike from June 11.
“We are going through acute depression due to the government’s negligent approach with regards to our demands. Today’s strike was aimed at reminding the authorities about our pending genuine demands,” said Parveen Khan, President JKNA.
Khan said the aggrieved look-after staff have been bringing their issues including pay grade and creation of posts into the notice of the authorities but no steps were made by the authorities to mitigate their woes.
“Our repeated pleas fell flat on deaf ears, authorities despite being aware about our issues and acknowledging them as genuine did not bother to address a single problem of ours. We are being treated as dumb driven cattle,” she added.
She said despite having degrees and diplomas, nurses are given less preference than class fourth employees who are least educated.
The President said higher posts including that of matron and Nursing Superintendents are lying vacant over the past twenty years but government never made any effort to fulfill the vacant posts.
“We cater to around 200 patients in 100 bed capacity ward; this is sheer injustice with patients as well as nurses. We feel overburdened how could we manage this,” she added.
