Delhi Nurses Union calls off protest against outsourcing nurses at Safdarjung Hospital

Delhi Nurses Union on Friday called off their protest after Union Health Ministry cancelled the decision to appoint outsourced nursing staff at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital as well as a makeshift hospital inside its premises.

By Joymala Bagchi Delhi Nurses Union on Friday called off their protest after Union Health Ministry cancelled the decision to appoint outsourced nursing staff at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital as well as a makeshift hospital inside its premises.

President of Delhi Nurses Union of the Safdarjung Hosptial, Prem Rose Suri in a letter to the Medical Superintendent referred to the minutes of a meeting held on June 7 under the chairmanship of Director General of Health Services Dr Sunil Kumar and said it was deferring the ongoing protest against the outsourcing of nurses at the hospital. The letter reads: "Delhi Nurse Union (DNU) is very happy and thankful for your decision to cancel the outsourcing of nursing staff in the interest of suffering humanity and welfare of the honest nursing profession."

A meeting was held on June 7 regarding the matter under the chairmanship of Director General of Health Services Dr Sunil Kumar. The executive committee of the DNU decided to call off the ongoing protest in light of the move. "As nursing is a professional service, it was agreed upon unanimously that nursing is a non-outsourcing service. It was also decided to fill up the vacant sanctioned posts of nurses by the permanent recruitment as soon as possible by the hospital administration and ministry," Suri stated.

The nursing staff of Safdarjung hospital started protesting the "outsourcing of nurses" by sporting black badges on their forearm from Friday (last week) onwards. The nursing union of Safdarjung hospital, which is under Delhi Nurses Union and is affiliated to the All India Government Nurses Federation (AIGNF), has been raising their voices against the outsourcing of nurses. A total of 350 contractual nurses are serving at the hospital since 2015.

There are around 600 vacancies in the permanent category in the nursing post of Safdarjung hospital. However, there are 330 contractual nursing staff members hired by the hospital directly which gets renewed every three months. Suri also wrote that he hoped hospital administration and the Ministry will start the recruitment of nurses on a regular basis. (ANI)

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