New batch helps MGMGH tide over MRB nurses protest

A new intake of 75 nurses at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital (MGMGH) has helped to continue its routine work even as nurses belonging to the Tamil Nadu Medical Recruitment Board (MRB) Nurses Empowerment Association continue to protest for regularisation of salaries at the campus of the public healthcare facility in Tiruchi.

A senior hospital official told The Hindu on Tuesday that 75 nurses had been sent to MGMGH recently by the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DME) in response to a long-standing demand for increasing nursing staff numbers at the hospital. At least 60 have joined duty, with the remaining to follow soon.

“We have a total of 209 nurses, of which 140 are regular appointees and 69 are MRB recruitments. The new nurses have helped us to tide over the strike situation for the time being. However, we look forward to having our MRB nurses also back on board with us soon, as their service is indispensable,” said the official.

From December 19, 120 members of Tamil Nadu MRB Nurses Empowerment Association working in the Tiruchi district, have been participating in a peaceful protest at the MGMGH campus, seeking the regularisation of their job as promised by the DMK in its poll manifesto for the 2021 Assembly election.

“We were selected by the Medical Recruitment Board (MRB), at a starting salary of ₹7,700. After successive protests, this was eventually increased to ₹18,000 in 2015. For the past 10 years, we are still working on the same pay, with no added benefits. MRB staff nurses can take maternity or any other type of medical leave only under loss of pay. We want the authorities to resolve this disparity immediately,” an association representative had said.

Their action was in continuation of the agitation by over 2,000 nurses that was held in Chennai on December 18.

The protesters have been urging the DMK to honour its promise made in the 2021 poll manifesto, to make permanent, all nurses appointed with consolidated pay and recruit the nurses who were appointed on temporary basis during COVID-19 outbreak and then terminated by the previous AIADMK government.