I haven’t seen a regular nurse since morning. The one who came didn’t even know how to use a nebuliser,” said Javed Shaikh, 46, a patient at Sir JJ Hospital. Pushpa Pandey, mother of a TB patient at the hospital, said, “I didn’t see the usual nurses today. In fact, till yesterday 2 to 3 nurses were there in the ward, but today there was only one. The routine check-up and checking vitals also did not take place.” This was the situation at the civic-run hospital on Thursday as nurses started their 2-day statewide strike. Pandey added, “We later came to know that nurses are on strike, and that nursing students and interns are handling patients instead.”

Medical services were affected across the state with hundreds of surgeries being postponed owing to the strike. Nurses are staging the demonstration against the government’s plan to outsource 1,749 of the 4,500 vacant posts of nurses in the state. As part of the protest, 10,000 nurses registered with the Maharashtra State Nursing Association were off duty on Thursday.