Malayali nurses resign from AMRI, return home

KOCHI: Fleeing Bengal for good, four nurses of the AMRI Hospital, where a devastating fire claimed 93 lives on December 9, arrived in Kochi on Sunday. Around 300 Malayali nurses, along with a couple of doctors, resigned in the wake of huge public outcry and strict government action against the hospital.The four - Julie Mathew, Elizabeth Thomas, Jils Joseph and Bessymol Baby - who arrived at Ernakulam Junction railway station by the Guwahati-Ernakulam Express in the evening, said that about a 100 more Malayali nurses were on their way and will reach here on Tuesday.The AMRI fire had created quite an uproar following reports about how the hospital staff fled as patients perished inside the hospital. Immediately after the fire the government decided to cancel the hospital’s license. Though the hospital authorities offered to transfer the nursing staff to other branches, many of them opted out.“There were rumours that the other two branches - Mukundapur and Salt Lake - will also face government action. Out of the 400 nursing staff at Dhakuria branch, more than 300 are Malayalis. Most of them quit,” said Julie Mathew of Ranni, who has been with AMRI for the past two-and-a-half years.“People were looking at us as if we did nothing to save the patients. Some bystanders even tried to attack the nurses after the incident,” pointed out Jils Joseph.Other hospitals in Bengal are not in favour of resigned AMRI staff. “On resigning, the AMRI hospital gave us all benefits due to us. We got December Salary, available leave and other benefits. However, when we approached other hospitals in Kolkata, they offered cheap salary,” said Elizabeth Thomas of Seethathode in Pathanamthitta.They had resigned on December 14, but were waiting to complete the formalities. A couple of nursing staff, who had resigned along with them had come back earlier. About 100 nurses are coming by the Shalimar Express, which will reach here on Tuesday, they said.Even when there are nation-wide nurses’ strikes going on, the four say they had good facilities at AMRI. “The work time was only six hours. We were paid decently. We would have continued if there was no issue.”