A prominent private hospital in the city has been accused of terminating the services of trainee nurses who attended to Nipah-affected patients, claiming that their performance was “below standards”.
According to sources in the United Nurses Association (UNA), two women trainee nurses and one male trainee nurse have been told not to come to work after their one-year training which would be over in the next few weeks.
This, union sources alleged, was a ploy to avoid regularising their employment, which would make them eligible for higher salaries. The State government had recently notified salary revision for hospital staff and the managements had challenged it.
UNA leaders alleged that the hospital was planning to take in more trainee nurses paying low wages.
Questioning the hospital’s claim that the performance of the three nurses was poor, the UNA sources wondered why their services were used for treating critically ill people such as Nipah-affected patients if their performance was poor.
However, a hospital source said it was the management’s discretion to hire trainees as staffers or terminate their service after assessing their performance.