“We had planned a four-hour sit-in in front of the ministry from 10 am, but the administration used force. A few nurses were injured when they were charged with batons at 11 am. They arrested more than 60 agitating nurses and detained them at the Mahendra Police Club,” said member of the struggle committee Laxmi KC.
The nurses have been demanding withdrawal of the decision to sack Kumari Rai from the post of registrar at the Nepal Nursing Council, establishment of a separate nursing department under the Ministry, provision of dress allowance, night duty allowance, promotion of all assistant nurse midwives who have passed the intermediate level to staff nurse, provision of paid leave to complete study up to the masters´ level among others.
The NAN had reached a six-point agreement with Health Secretary Dr Sudha Sharma about a month back. The nurses, however, claim that the agreement had not been implemented yet.
“Now, we will only negotiate with the minister as the agreement with the secretary has become meaningless,” said president of NAN Sarala KC. KC vowed to continue the protest till their demands were addressed.
“We have been discriminated. There are around 26,000 nurses but only 3,500 government posts. Nurses are exploited while working in private institutions,” KC said. She apologized for the inconvenience.
Earlier, Bir Hospital had to bear the brunt of resident doctors´ strike for five days till Monday. “It (nurses´ strike) has definitely affected services. But we (doctors) are working for extra hours to make up for the impact of nurses´ strike,” said a resident doctor at Bir Hospital.
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