Health Minister Prasanna Acharya today said the government was seriously considering the nurses' demands including regularisation of services, but this had little impact on the strikers.
"Some retired nurses had contacted us and are willing to provide services. We are thinking of requisitioning their services on daily-wage basis," Director of Acharya Harihar Cancer Research Institute, Sukadev Nayak said.
At least 45 contractual nurses of the institute are on strike since Monday leaving only 15 staff nurses to attend to over 250 patients in cancer institute.
Things worsened when the ten nursing students, who were working for last four days, did not turn up for duties.
The students claimed that they are unable to take the workload and made serious allegation of misbehaviour against doctors, PG students and house surgeons during the duty hours.
The hospital authorities now try to rope in services of retired nurses to run the show.
At S C B, there was a steady decline in the number of outdoor patients while the patients, admitted in diifferent wards, were seen urging the authorities to discharge them so that they could be treated elsewhere in the state.
