Nurses strike: Iqraa Hospital revises pay structure

Thursday, March 1, 2012: The city-based Iqraa Hospital had on Wednesday said it has implemented a new pay package with Rs 8,000 as minimum salary to the nurses aimed at ending the labour unrest in the health care institution.
Talking to newspersons here, Executive Director PC Anwar said the hospital has agreed to pay Rs 8,000 as minimum wage fixed by the government to BSc nurses and Rs 7,600 to general nurses with effect from February 1, 2012.
Earlier, the hospital paid Rs 5,750 to the nurses in additional to other allowances, including Rs 500 increment, subsidized food and hostel facilities. Refuting allegation that the hospital was commercializing its services, he said Iqraa, run by charitable society JDT Islam stood for the health care of patients, majority of them hailing from poor strata of the society.
Iqraa is the only hospital in private sector which offered OPD facility at Rs ten and dialysis at a mere Rs 430 and CT scan at Rs 750, he claimed.
Denying the charge of striking employees that the management and doctors took commission for treatment, he said this was only aimed at denigrating the institution and disrupting its functioning, he added. The nursing staff, under the banner of Indian Registered Nurses Association, has begun an indefinite stir demanding, among others, minimum wage, 3-shift system, PF and ESI facilities.