Medical edu minister urges striking nurses to resume work

Mumbai: Medical education minister Amit Deshmukh on Tuesday met a delegation of nurses of government hospitals who have been on strike since May 28 and urged them to return to work. While members of the group said they had a detailed discussion about their demands, a call on withdrawing the strike would be taken once they have seen the minutes of the meeting.

Owing to the strike, medical services in several state-run hospitals have been severely hit. The medical education department said that the government was positive about the 12 demands and said the director of the medical education directorate will study them. Deshmukh also said that some of the demands would be taken up with other departments as soon as possible. He has assured that efforts would be made to address the issue in the next one to one-and-a-half months.

Around 27,000 nurses in Maharashtra, who primarily work at the state-run medical colleges and hospitals, have been on an indefinite strike since Saturday.