Bhubaneshwar: The Odisha Nursing Employees’ Union (ONEA) will continue its agitation as talks with the Health Department failed. The nursing staff will provide emergency services until September 26, after which they will join the strike, ONEA informed. The patient care in non-emergency department was partially affected at government hospitals across the state as thousand of nurses went on a strike over their 10-point charter of demands. The nurses are demanding that the duration of their contractual service should be treated as a period of qualifying service for consideration of promotion, a modified assured career progression (MACP) and notional increments.
Following a high-level meeting between Health Secretary Aswathy S, director of nursing, Artabandhu Nayak, and office-bearers of ONEA, the latter was assured that there will be continuous engagement with them and issues will be considered sympathetically at appropriate times. The department requested the protesting staff, who provide essential service, to withdraw their strike and resuming duties immediately. Notably, Director of Nursing had asked heads of all the state-run healthcare facilities to take action against protesting nursing officers as ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act) was still in force
