Nurses of Bistupur’s Kantilal Gandhi Memorial Hospital managed by Medica, who were asked to report for duty at the Calcutta branch from Monday, have decided to take up the matter with state health minister Banna Gupta and East Singhbhum deputy commissioner (DC) Ravi Shankar Shukla.

The hospital management had issued a relieving order to 31 nurses through a notice put up at the administrative office on Saturday evening.

According to the notice, the nurses were supposed to leave Jamshedpur on Sunday morning and report for duty at the Calcutta branch on Monday.

Among the nurses on the transfer list, 10 are trained to handle ICU and ventilators.

The notice also mentions that the attendance of the 31 nurses would not be registered at the Bistupur hospital from Monday.

A nurse said that the hospital’s HR head Indrani Sarkar had verbally announced that the nurses would be asked to resign if they refused to go to Calcutta, a Covid-19 red zone.

However, none of the 31 nurses left the city on Sunday.

One of the senior nurses, whose name figured on the transfer list, said they would not go to Calcutta even if their salary was doubled.

“We are keeping track of what is happening in Calcutta hospitals. While the Manipur government is taking back its 185 nurses from various private hospitals in Calcutta and the government of other states are also planning to follow suit, why should we go to Calcutta?” the nurse said.

“We will meet the health minister and the DC and explain our predicament. We will want to know if they can do anything to provide us any relief,” she said. Medica hospital has 105 nurses.

Hospital manager (operations) Amit Kumar Singh did not respond to repeated calls on his mobile.

Meanwhile, over 30 house-keeping staff of hospital, who were on strike for the past four days to protest against the non-payment of salaries, have joined duty. Admission of patients, which had stopped since Friday night, has also resumed.