Night shift, poll duty take toll on nurses’ health

Manmeet Gill

Amritsar, May 30

Nurses at the Government Medical College and Hospital have expressed their displeasure on being asked to perform night duties and then attend their election duties the

next day. A nurse said some of them have been assigned night duty today and have been asked to report for the election duty at 9 am on Friday morning.

“The nurses had night shifts on May 18, after which they attended election rehearsals on May 19 in the morning. The same happened on May 25 and May 28 ,when they had to attend the rehearsals the next day,” said an employee.

The employees raised their concerns regarding performing election duties of collecting the EVM machines, taking those to polling booths and setting them up, after working all night long in the hospital the previous day.

“Most of the nurses are sleep deprived as they have to remain awake the next day, even after attending night duty at the hospital. We had brought the matter to nursing superintendent Jasbir Kaur’s notice, but the problem remains unresolved. While the employees from other departments are exempted from their routine duty during election rehearsals, the nurses are being forced to perform both,” the health employee said.

She added that the night shift is of 12 hours and it is not possible for them to attend poll duty the next day without getting a break.

In a complaint written to the Election Commission, the nurses had requested that the hospital management should be asked to look into the matter and treat employees humanely.

Officials’ apathy

• The employees raised their concerns regarding performing election duties of collecting the EVM machines, taking those to polling booths and setting them up, after working all night long in the hospital the previous day.
• While the employees from other departments are exempted from their routine duty during election rehearsals, the nurses are being forced to perform both. The night shift is of 12 hours and it is not possible for the nurses to attend poll duty the next day without getting a break.