Manipur Issued no advisory asking nurses to leave Kolkata, says CM

Sumati Yengkhom | TNN | May 18, 2020, KOLKATA: Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh had denied any advisory from the state government asking healthcare workers (HCWs) of Manipur working in other states to return. This comes in the wake of a mass exodus of nurses from Kolkata, majority of them from Manipur. A section of the media had reported that the Manipur government had asked them nurses to come back.

“There is no advisory or instruction from the government of Manipur to any HCW working outside the state to return home. We feel proud that they are at the frontline of any state of the nation fighting Covid-19 and saving precious lives across the country,” said Singh.

Around 500 HCWs from Manipur, mostly nurses working across private hospitals in Kolkata, have quit their jobs and have gone back home. While those from neighbouring Odisha, Jharkhand and Tripura, too, have gone back, their numbers are lower in comparison.

Staring at a manpower crisis, the Association of Hospital of Eastern India (AHEI) had written to the Bengal chief secretary seeking intervention and had cited lucrative offers by governments of the respective states of the nurses as a possible reason for the exodus.

However, the Manipur CM said, “We are proud of our HCWs working in cities like Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai. The state government is fully behind them. We have even announced a reward for them. But if some of them do not feel comfortable at their work places, we cannot force them to stay back. It is their choice.”

But despite the exodus, a majority of nurses have stayed back and many are still working in Covid wards of their respective hospitals. “Concerns like personal protection, especially after a few nurses from Manipur tested positive, came up. We are vulnerable to the infection. But this is not the right time leave for home,” said a nurse from Manipur who is still here in the city.

Hospitals have started counselling and offering incentives for nurses. For example, Fortis Hospital has taken out additional life insurance for all frontline employees, including nurses.

“Every stakeholder should come together to speak to boys and girls and find out their problems,” said ENT surgeon Arjun Dasgupta.

Manipuris in Kolkata (MIK), a group of people from Manipur living in Kolkata, has regularly been holding online meetings and conferences with the nurses to offer to solutions to their issues.

“Since the Manipur government had arranged transit passes for so many nurses from across Kolkata, it was initially thought that the government wanted to take them back. We have, however, learnt that the nurses themselves had approached their government through their local MLAs,” said Rupak Barua, group CEO, AMRI Hospitals, and vice-president of AHEI.

Barua, on behalf of AHEI, had appealed to the Bengal government, asking for support to sort out this growing crisis and a similar appeal will be made to governments of other states, from where most of our nurses who work in private hospitals of Kolkata come.

(Amid the staff crunch at the city's private hospitals in the wake of the recent exodus of nurses, most medical facilities in Kolkata have decided to cater to a limited number of patients, and counsel the existing employees to prevent them from following suit..- PTI)