Following MiD DAY's report on Cama & Albless authorities asking nurses to tend to CM's mother-in-law at his residence, management assured them of revoking its decision
Following MiD DAY's report on Cama & Albless authorities asking nurses to tend to CM's mother-in-law at his residence, management assured them of revoking its decision
After MiD DAY's report on nurses at the government-run Cama & Albless hospital being sent to CM Prithviraj Chavan's bungalow to nurse his mother-in-law, the nurses of the hospital on Monday morning staged a protest against the administration. They allege that the hospital authorities are forcing them to work at the CM's official residence, Varsha. 
In protest: Cama & Albless Hospital nurses agitate against the
authorities yesterday. Pic /Atul Kamble
This paper had reported about the incident ('Cama nurses summoned to take care of CM's ma-in-law') on October 8.
Yesterday, more than 50 nurses on morning shift gathered in the hospital compound around 8.30 am to protest against authorities sending nurses outside the hospital for duty.
Kasturi Kadam, joint secretary, Maharashtra Nurses Association, said, "According to the rulebook, nurses cannot be sent to give nursing care outside the hospital. If the patient is admitted to the hospital, we all are ready to take the best care of them. But we cannot go to any minister's bungalow in this manner."
Another nurse, requesting anonymity, said, "We had joined this profession to take care of patients and we are not shunning our duty. But we cannot go to the residence of any minister or dignitary for private duty."
It was only when Dr Rajshri Katke, medical superintendent of the hospital, assured the nurses that the authorities would not send them to the minister's bungalow, the agitated nurses returned to their duty.
"Our night duty staff is at the hospital wards and no patient's treatment was compromised while the nurses were protesting," added Kadam.
'All to curry favour'
Kamal Waikule, general secretary of the federation, said, "Once when Vasant Rao Naik was chief minister, his brother fell ill and was in the hospital medical superintendent's bungalow. At that time, the hospital had asked nurses to go to the bungalow but we declined to do that. The minister respected our decision and admitted his brother to the hospital."
Waikule has also written to Chavan asking for a probe in the matter. "Nurses are women and we have to think about their security. We have had bad experiences in the past," she said, adding,u00a0 "The fact that nurses were asked to sign on the hospital muster and then go to the CM's bunglow proves that this is not an official arrangement. The authorities are only trying to be in the good books of the CM, so they decided to send the employees there," said Waikule.
Even after repeated attempts, Dr Rajshri Katke, medical superintendent of the hospital was not available for comment.
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