New Delhi, Jul 8 (PTI) The nurses at the Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute (VPCI) here have been protesting for the last three days by stopping work for two hours every day to demand Covid vaccination of all employees and against the "inexplicable delay in their promotions".

In a statement, the nurses said they have decided to stop work from 11 am to 1 pm from July 5 to July 9 following "repeated appeals to the VPCI administration regarding concerns stemming from the expansion of medical services in the institute without corresponding enhancement in the recruitment of nurses to manage the workload".

The office-bearers of the VPCI nurses' union (affiliated to the Delhi Nurses Union) have also been demanding Covid vaccination of all the employees at the institute, a measure that has still not been taken, despite the VPCI opening a six-bed ICU, a two-bed HDU, a new 31-bed ward, emergency services for Covid-positive patients or suspected cases and a post-Covid clinic, the statement said.

"Many staff of the VPCI have contracted the contagion in these past months and at least two staffers have succumbed to the disease while in service.

"The protesting VPCI nurses are also agitating against the inexplicable delay in their promotions, and the unwillingness of the VPCI administration to recruit a nursing officer as per the provisions of timely promotions within every five years and 100 per cent promotion under the Department Promotional Committee norms of the Staff Inspection Unit (SIU)," the statement said.

The VPCI is an institute attached to the Delhi University and its funding source is the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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