Unable to stem exodus of Manipur nurses, WB appoints assistants

Private hospitals in the state have been asked to appoint nursing assistants on emergency basis after imparting “soft-training” to them, as hospitals face an unprecedented crisis following exodus of nurses, particularly from Manipur.

Over 600 nurses have so far quit their jobs in various private hospitals of Kolkata alleging lack of basic workplace safety and also racial discrimination.

To prevent the collapse of nursing services amidst COVID-19 pandemic, the health department gave special permission to the private hospitals to appoint male and female nursing assistants by imparting seven days of training.

These assistants will be allowed to only handle non-critical cases for services like fixing dippers, measuring blood pressure, providing medicines to patients as per prescription etc.

Some hospitals have already started appointing health-care assistants who have completed one-year certificate courses.

However, the government’s directive made it clear that the assistants would not be allowed to handle surgical works, ventilators or other critical processes and these appointees would not be called “nurses.”

The hospitals have also been asked to appoint retired nurses to deal with the crisis.

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Association of Hospitals of Eastern India Rupak Barua said the sudden exodus of nurses from other states such as Manipur, Tripura, Jharkhand and Odisha severely affected the nursing services in the private hospital.

He said the government’s recent guideline to appoint nursing assistants would help to temporally tide over the crisis.

The association had earlier requested the Manipur government to help prevent the exodus.

The Manipur government, however, clarified that it had no role in the mass resignation of nurses. Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh clarified his government did not issue any advisory to health workers from the state to return home.

“We are proud of our HCWs working in cities like Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai. The state government is fully behind them. We have even announced a reward for them. But if some of them do not feel comfortable at their workplaces, we cannot force them to stay back. It is their choice,” Biren Singh said.

The nurses with whom The Federal spoke cited personal health concerns and racial slur for their decision to leave the state.

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Roma Laishram Chanu of Imphal, who was among the first batch of nurses to leave a private hospital at the Kolkata’s E M Bypass, said they were often being taunted as “corona” on the road.

“I worked in Kolkata for three years. But never in the past had I experienced such persistently snide remarks. In the past two months, it was regular affairs. Moreover, in the hospital despite many of our colleagues testing positive for the COVID-19, enough attention was not paid to our personal health safety,” she said from Imphal.

After the exodus, some hospitals started counseling and offering incentives for the nurses.