Covid patients undergoing treatment at Ranchi Sadar Hospital had a harrowing time for the second consecutive day on Monday as barely 15 of the over 100 nurses resumed work after a day-long strike on Sunday.

The nurses on Covid duty also refused to administer injections and medicines to some of the needy patients, citing lack of prescriptions and other reasons, patients complained. The nurses had agreed to resume work after Deputy Commissioner Chhavi Ranjan assured them payment of arrears and other monetary perks on Sunday.

Oxygen cylinders being unloaded at the Sadar Hospital in Ranchi. Manob Chowdhary

“I was prescribed Remdesivir by the doctor who was treating me. The injection is available but no nurse is willing to administer the injection citing some or the other reason,” said Vinay Kumar, a Covid patient surviving on oxygen support in the hospital.

Like Vinay, many other Covid patients are left with no option but to wait for nurses to resume work, so they can at least get medicines on time, said Rakesh Tiwari, an attendant at the hospital.

Ranchi Civil Surgeon Dr Vinod Kumar issued an ultimatum to the nurses on Monday, saying that they either resume work within 24 hours or face departmental action, which may even lead to suspension or termination.

A hospital worker carrying medical waste. Manob Chowdhary

“If they (nurses) do not rejoin duty in 24 hours, then we will be forced to write to the department seeking strict action against them,” said Dr Kumar, adding that the absence of sufficient nurses made it particularly difficult for the hospital administration to run the 60-bed ICU for Covid patients.

There are 200 general beds and 60 ICU beds earmarked for Covid-19 patients at Sadar Hospital. The government had roped in more than 100 nurses from Community Health Centres (CHCs) to attend to Covid patients in the hospital as the facility did not have sufficient nurses on rolls. However, the outsourced nurses from CHCs went on strike on Sunday, demanding payment of the additional Rs 15,000 per month promised to them and arrears pending for three months, among other financial benefits, doctors said.

Covid patients undergoing treatment at the hospital had to suffer on Sunday as well, said doctors. A doctor on duty at the hospital said that medicines were not reaching patients on time despite being available in the hospital due to the strike by nurses.

“Usually, nurses administer injections and medicines prescribed to patients. In their absence, it becomes impossible for the limited number of doctors to treat patients, write prescriptions and also administer medicines,” he said.

Many doctors in the hospital have also contracted Covid-19 infection and have gone into isolation, further increasing the pressure on the caregivers still working in Covid wards of the hospital, sources said.

Ranchi is facing its worst wave of Covid-19 since the beginning of April. The district has reported more than 5000 cases and over 50 casualties every day on an average in the past one week. Sadar Hospital, in the heart of the state capital, is one of the largest state-run Covid care facilities in the city, which has more than 15,000 Covid patients at present.