Nurses who complained about unequal duty hours, get transferred

Amritsar, March 21

Two nurses who had blown the lid off the illegal and unethical practice of appointing favourites as ‘Acting Sisters’, at Guru Nanak Dev Hospital have been ‘rewarded’ with a transfer and deduction in pay by marking them absent despite both of them marking their attendance on the biometric attendance machine regularly.

The two nurses had objected to the alleged system adopted by the Nursing Superintendent Jasbir Kaur and Nursing Matron Paramdeep Kaur Buttar for appointing ‘Acting Nurses’ from among the staff nurses without any government provision.

The sources further stated that no criterion was followed for appointing some nurses as ‘acting nurses’ and only those who were close to senior nursing officials were given these relatively ‘easy and comfortable’ duties.

Sources in the hospital further stated that these ‘acting nurses’ were exempted from evening and night shifts. While other nurses had to undergo morning, evening and night shifts, these acting nurses were assigned morning duties only.

“Usually, the morning and evening shifts are of six hours each and the night shift is of 12 hours. In this way, these ‘acting nurses’ were working less number of hours per week than the others,” said an insider.

After the issue got highlighted, the Director Principal of Government Medical College had written to the Nursing Superintendent to cancel all duties of the staff nurses as acting nurses. The letter stated that only Nursing Sisters should be given the charge of wards.

When contacted, Jasbir Kaur said that the practice of ‘acting nurses’ was adopted to overcome the shortage of staff. She added that there was a shortage of nursing staff in the hospital

When asked about the victimisation and transfer of the two nurses who had filed a complaint, Jasbir Kaur said that transfers were done because they were indulging in indiscipline. Contrary to the claims of the employees, the Nursing Superintendent claimed that the employees were served notices before marking them absent. — TNS 

Had objected to adopted system

The two nurses had objected to the alleged system adopted by the Nursing Superintendent Jasbir Kaur and Nursing Matron Paramdeep Kaur Buttar for appointing ‘Acting Nurses’ from among the staff nurses without any government provision.