NEW DELHI: In a move to remove the stalemate that occurred after a controversial decision by the Centre regarding the merger and downgrading of senior nursing posts, the Union Health Ministry has now offered a proposal to the nurses where the merged post will be replaced by a higher senior designation. Sources said that the proposal was communicated to a delegation of nurses in a meeting held at Nirman
Bhawan on Wednesday. A proposal was floated that in place of Deputy Nursing Superintendents (DNS), whose posts were merged, the Ministry will increase the strength of Nursing Superintendents (NS), sources added.The move came after this newspaper broke the story about the peculiar order and prominently highlighted the plight of the affected nurses.
So far, each hospital has only one such NS post. The move will largely resolve the hierarchy issue of the nursing cadre which the previous decision by the Centre had impacted. However, the deliberations are on to decide how the responsibilities of the dissolved post would be shared with the new proposal.
“The ministry is ready to make it comparable with the number of DNS it dissolved. So it will solve the pertinent issue raised by nurses that their promotion will be stuck since the post of DNS got merged into a rank lower of Assistant Nursing Superintendent (ANS). While the nurses approved the proposal, we are still to work out how the duties and responsibilities of now dissolved DNS will be distributed,” a senior government official said.
According to the previous order, the ministry dissolved the post of DNS at four centre-run hospitals, Safdarjung, Ram Manohar Lohia, Lady Hardinge, and Kalawati Saran. The post has been merged with the ANS, which downgraded 40 nursing professionals to a rank lower than their position.The nursing professionals questioned the decision stating that the move was against the government’s own norms and will adversely affect the hierarchy.
Meanwhile, a key member of the nurses’ delegation said that in light of the latest development, the nurses will not observe the indefinite strike they planned to oppose the peculiar order by the Centre.“We have decided to postpone the strike till we get clarity on the roles and responsibilities which will be divided among the creation of new posts of NS with the existing ANS,” the member said.
Nursing Superintendent posts may be created
A proposal was floated by the Union Ministry of Health that in place of Deputy Nursing Superintendents (DNS), whose posts were merged, the ministry will increase the strength of Nursing Superintendents (NS), sources added. The move will largely resolve the hierarchy issue which the previous decision by the Centre had impacted.
