Insult by doctor prompts nurses’ strike

Thiruvananthapuram: While nurses across Kerala in private hospitals were organising protests demanding better remuneration, their counterparts at a government hospital in Kottayam district staged a demonstration, on Friday, against insulting language used by one doctor against one of their nursing colleagues.

The incident was reported from the Government Taluk Hospital at Pambady in Kottayam district, where a doctor on duty allegedly directed the head nurse to “follow like a dog”.

Worse, the doctor’s command was broadcast on the public address system used at the hospital to call out names of patients, which meant that the foul comment was heard by a number of people at the hospital.

The nurses at the hospital proceeded to stage a sit-in protest in the office of the hospital superintendent, K.A. Manoj. Their demand was for appropriate action to be taken against the doctor, who was on casualty medical duty, over the comment.

The superintendent in turn brought the matter to the attention of the deputy district medical officer, and assured the nurses that department-level action would be taken against the offending doctor, following which the nurses ended their protest.

The nurses said their protest was carried out without causing a disruption in the functioning of the hospital. They said the doctor alleged to have used foul language had been in similar trouble earlier, and that he had been reported for behaving badly with patients.

Nurses in private hospitals in Kerala have been on intermittent protests in Kerala, demanding better pay. A few months back when they went on strike, an agreement was ironed out in the presence of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan that hospital managements would raise the pay of nurses in 50-bed hospitals to Rs 20,000 per month.

However, nurses say that many of them are still being paid around half that amount or slightly less, and that they are contemplating another round of protests.