More than 700 contract nurses working in government hospitals across Tamil Nadu were held by Chennai city police on Tuesday as they made their way to the Directorate of Medical Services campus to stage a sit-in protest demanding that the government make their jobs permanent.
The MRB Nurses Empowerment Association said that the nurses would go on strike in the marriage halls where they were being held.
"The DMK government came to power with a promise that they will give us a permanent job. It's been two years now, and they haven't done that," said Raghavan Ravichandran, one of the nurses.
"The government has added more hospitals and beds without recruiting nurses. They must realise that beds don't care for people, but we do," he said.
In most hospitals, the state has one nurse in charge of more than 80 patients, and most hospitals do not have the prescribed patient-nurse ratio, even in ICUs.
He further added, "This affects the quality of care and hygiene in hospitals."
Around 12,000 nurses who passed the Medical Recruitment Board (MRB) tests were hired by the state on a contract basis in 2015. While about 7,000 of these nurses are now employed on a permanent basis, the remaining nurses continue to work under contract for lesser pay.