Over 20 nurses and Group-D staff of Panskura Super-Specialty Hospital in East Midnapore gheraoed the superintendent on Saturday alleging “substandard and inhuman” working conditions in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nurses said that in spite of a March 25 directive from the health department directing hospitals to provide food and lodging to health workers, they had been made to work on “six continuous shifts”.

“We have been wearing the same clothes since Wednesday and did not get a place to take a shower,” a nurse said on condition of anonymity. “We are risk-prone anyway, but by continuing like this, we might start contracting new infections because of the lack of hygiene,” the nurse added.

The protesters said the same group of nurses were required to serve the hospital’s emergency ward and the isolation ward that had patients with Covid-19 symptoms.

On Wednesday, the chief medical officer (health) of East Midnapore, Nitai Mondal, had issued a circular to hospital superintendents directing them not to utilise all available employees at any given time in order to rotate manpower and reduce the risk of transmission of the coronavirus.

“We asked hospitals to split the available staff into three groups, each of which would work for any given week. Each member would work only one six-hour shift a day, but for seven continuous days. They would be provided food and lodging by the hospital during that period,” said a health official.

The hospital authorities at Panskura said on Saturday that they had been following the government’s directives. “We have converted an operation theatre on the top floor into a temporary accommodation for our employees. We could not find accommodation anywhere else in the city,” said hospital superintendent Sachindra Rajak.

The nurses alleged that the hospital authorities were insensitive to their needs.

“I live barely 10km from the hospital. My husband could have picked me up on his motorbike so I could go and take a shower. But they did not allow me to leave,” said a nurse. “They did not even give us food. They let us leave the hospital only when we said we needed to buy food,” she added.

CMOH Mondal said he was not aware of the situation at Panskura. “We never asked hospitals to make their staff work six continuous shifts. I will look into this,” he said.