Even when various state governments and hospital managements are holding discussions with the striking nurses' unions in several parts of the country, the All India Private Nurses Association (AIPNA) is bracing up to approach the Indian Nursing Council for arriving at a comprehensive solution to the nurses’ grievances in the national level.

Jinu Varghese, the national secretary of AIPNA said even after indefinite strikes by nurses all over India, the INC is keeping silence over it. The association wanted the intervention of the nursing council for the welfare of the nursing community and said the MCI and the PCI are intervening in the affairs of their registered members. To break the silence of the Council, the nurses association will send letters to the Prime Minister of India and to the union health minister, he added.

The staff nurses unions in the Corporate as well as in the private hospitals in the major cities of India have been striking work for the last six months demanding better wages and good service conditions. They are also protesting against the management’s unfair system of keeping the nurses’ original educational certificates that preventing them from leaving their jobs before completing the contract period. In north India, apart from better salary and living conditions, the working nurses are demanding freedom from exploitative conditions, protection from alleged harassment by hospital managements, relaxation in bond system and return of certificates on request.

The nurses association has alleged that the reason for the silence of the INC is due to the pressure from Corporate hospitals. They said a new order from the Indian nursing council has helped to abolish the bond system introduced by the private hospitals. But, he added, certain hospitals are exploiting the health workers in a new manner by forcefully accepting signed blank cheques from the nursing staff.

The memorandum being prepared by AIPNA demands fixing of Rs.15,000 as monthly salary for the junior staff nurse and a re-schedule of the nurses-patient ratio as 1:4 in the wards and 1:1 in the emergency units as per the norms of NABH. The national secretary of the association said it will reduce the work load of the staff nurses and improve the patient care. According to the unions, there are over 18 lakhs nurses working in various hospitals in the country.

In Kerala, after discussion with the nurses unions, the government has decided to implement minimum wages act from June this year, but it has not been accepted by the caretakers’ unions as the order for minimum wages was issued in 2009. The state labour minister said out of the 750 private hospitals in Kerala, only 45 hospitals are paying minimum wages to nurses. He added that a committee was set up by the government to study the working conditions of nurses and other paramedical staffs in private hospitals.

Reduction or work load, freedom of work, safety from mental torture, respect of the colleagues and dignity of profession are other ethical demands put up in the memorandum by the nurses unions, Jinu told Pharmabiz.