Health Secretary holds discussion with ONEA representatives

Bhubaneswar: A discussion was held with the office bearers of the Odisha Nursing Employees’ Union (ONEA) in the Health & Family Welfare Department.

The discussion was on various issues concerning the Nursing Officers.
The Office bearers thanked Government that many of the long-standing issues have already been resolved in the meantime as follows
• A huge 4683 nos. of Nursing Officers have been appointed in the year 2021 against 6432 no of vacancies revamping existing health care.
• Two years later in 2023, again 3738 nos. of Nursing Officers have been appointed against 7483 no of vacancies.
• As many as 3016 number of Nursing Officers from different schemes have been inducted into the base level posts of Odisha Nursing Service Cadre and 2883 Nursing Officers have already been regularized till date as per provisions of cadre rule after implementation of repeal of Contractual and Special Provision Rules, 2022.
• All the Contractual Nursing Officers have been accorded the benefit of service seniority as regular employees at par with beneficiaries of other cadres of Government as per the Repeal Rules, 2022.
• Around 11933 number of Nursing Officers shall be benefitted to get promotion to the higher level due to cadre restructuring.
• They are getting auto financial up-gradation from Level-8 to Level-9 after completion of 3 years of service which is not in the case of the cadre of other paramedics.
• Staff Nurse has been re-designated as Nursing Officer to assure dignity to the cadre.
The Office bearers brought to the notice of the Government many other issues. After detailed discussion concerning the Nursing Officers, it was assured to them that there will be continuous engagement with them in future and the issues will be considered sympathetically at appropriate times. As theirs is an essential service, it was requested that they should desist from agitational path, withdraw their strike and resume duty immediately.
During discussions with the Office bearers, the Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Director, Nursing and other senior officers of the Department were present.