This week began with around 5,000 nursing staff from Delhi’s reputed All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital declaring an indefinite strike, citing “anomalies” in their salaries as the main reason.
Videos of the strike have gone viral on social media – testifying to the strength of the union of healthcare professionals. The staff can be heard chanting slogans calling for the fulfilment of their demands in unison.
As the nursing and paramedic staff decided to go on a strike, the emergency services at AIIMS in the national capital have been affected drastically, even resulting in the abandonment of patients who require critical care.
According to AIIMS head Dr. Randeep Guleria, the nurse union had put forward 23 demands and “almost all of them have been met by the AIIMS administration and the government”, the media has reported. As of now, only payments remain an issue.
This strike by AIIMS comes just days after doctors across the country joined in to protest against the government order allowing Ayurveda practitioners to perform surgical procedures following training.