TSHRC directs police, health officials to enquire into nurses

The Telangana State Human Rights Commission on Monday directed police and health officials to enquire and send an Action Taken Report on a news item, which alleged that some nurses from Tamil Nadu at a private hospital were being forced to work despite having COVID-19 "symptoms".

The Telangana State Human Rights Commission on Monday directed police and health officials to enquire and send an Action Taken Report on a news item, which alleged that some nurses from Tamil Nadu at a private hospital were being forced to work despite having COVID-19 "symptoms". The SHRC by itself took note of a report in a Telugu daily and directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police (West Zone) and District Medical and Health Officials, Hyderabad, to visit the hospital, interact with the nurses and ascertain their 'problems'.

The officials should get the nurses treated if they were found to be COVID-19 positive, ensure their salaries are paid if they had not been given it and make arrangements to send them back to Tamil Nadu if they so wished. An Action Taken Report should be filed within five days, it said and posted the matter to July 27.

The media report claimed that the nurses were "confined and forced to work" by the hospital management even when some of them were having symptoms of COVID-19 and that their salaries were also withheld..