A senior Delhi government official said that the lieutenant-governor has approved the government’s proposal to invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act against the agitating nurses.
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On August 28, when the police had first reported the case, the hospital authorities had initially denied the incident.
Other states might also see the same effect in the coming days if the nurses do not report back to work.
He also asked them to put effective monitoring systems in place, the release said. At least 432 chikungunya cases have been reported in Delhi so far.
This year, dengue cases have been reported rather early.
The protest comes on the same day that trade unions across the country called for a nation-wide strike. Union health secretary C K Mishra said the nurses’ unions would be allowed to present their demands at the high-level meeting to be held at the Finance Ministry on September 12.
“There has been a death at our hospital due to dengue, a young girl, who succumbed today”, RML Hospital’s Medical Superintendent Dr A K Gadpayle said.
Mentioning the services that were affected, the doctor added that endoscopy and dialysis facilities in the hospital were not happening due to the shortage of nurses.
The city government in a statement said the Health Department has issued “public notice” asking striking staff to resume duty “immediately”. “But, we will attend to emergency and critical cases”, Spokesperson of All India Government Nurses Federation Liladhar Ramchandani said on Thursday.
All major hospitals in Delhi, swamped by patients suffering from vector-borne diseases tried to reach a common ground with their respective nurse associations, but in vain.
Government hospitals employ about 20,000 nurses.
Nurses from all Central Govt. Hospitals, Delhi state Govt. Hospitals, All Uttar Pradesh state Hospitals, PGI Chandigarh, SGPGI Lucknow, ESIC Hospitals and Railway Hospitals across country have joined the protest.
The Delhi government runs almost 40 hospitals out of which LNJP Hospital is the biggest.
Safdarjung Hospital, with 1,100 nurses including 160 on contract, has reported three dengue deaths in July.
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The national capital seems to have been hit the hardest by the stir as patients suffered in the absence of adequate staff at hospitals, which are managing with contractual nurses and interns.
