Staff shortage forces nurses to hold protest

Chennai

With an increase in the number of COVID cases among medical professionals and increasing workload, the contract nurses at the dedicated COVID-19 hospital at Omandurar boycotted work on Wednesday morning and demanded more nurses to be recruited.

“The bed facility at the special ward is for 500 patients and there are only about 25-30 nurses on a rotational basis. It is very difficult for us to handle 20 patients or more at the same time,” a nurse said on condition of anonymity.

Another nurse posted at the COVID ward alleged that nurses are overloaded with work and their health is being affected as a result. “Many of us have tested positive as there is a high risk of infection. There is no proper maintenance and the number of nurses is very low to tackle the increasing number of cases each day. Being the only dedicated hospital, we receive more number of cases,” said another nurse.

Hospital authorities said that many VIPs, including mediapersons, doctors and politicians, are admitted to the hospital and nurses are under constant pressure.

The nodal officer at Omandurar Government General Hospital, Dr Ramesh, confirmed the protest and said that the nurses have been assured that more staff will be posted at the hospital. “There is work overload and increased pressure on the nurses. But we have resolved the issue and nurses are back on duty,” he added.