The Trained Nurses’ Association of India (TNAI) on Sunday extended its support to nurses at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, who have been posted in COVID-19 wards and are demanding reduced duty hours.
TNAI, with over 3 lakh members including clinical nurses, educators and researchers among others, has written to the AIIMS administration stating that the grievances of nurses taken up by the AIIMS Nurses Union remain unattended despite regular, periodic representations and meetings with the institute authorities. “This is very unfortunate and deplorable,” TNAI noted.
It added that asking nurses to serve extra hours for COVID-19 duty in day hours, besides 12 hours night shift without any necessary facilities for rest, transport and food/water is not only against the norms but also fraught with serious health implications. “ ... it will definitely lead to more nurses falling ill, leading to shortage of nurses for patient care in the time of increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the country,” TNAI said.
The appeal to the institute comes at a time when over 500 AIIMS staff and their family members have tested positive for COVID-19 since March this year.
Testing ramped up
Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Sunday said it had further ramped up the testing capacity for detecting the novel coronavirus. “The number of government labs has been increased to 531 and private labs to 228 [total 759]. About 1,42,069 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. The total number of samples tested thus far is 46,66,386,” a release said.
The Health Ministry on Sunday noted that symptomatic COVID-19 patients who have severe pneumonia with respiratory rate of 30 breath per minute should be considered for shifting to ICU, according to a clinical management protocol for adult patients.
