PoS hospital cancels surgeries

And while the theatre nurses said they were grateful for the upgrade, they want to make it known to the public that the cancellations were not their fault, as it was made out to be when surgeries were cancelled on June 4 when several nurses fell ill.

“On that day because of the number of nurses who were ill surgeries had to be cancelled. They put us up on the news saying that nurses sick out and endangered the lives of patients scheduled for surgery,” said a nurse who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“Now surgeries have been cancelled since Monday because Health and Safety spoke to us and said we could not work under the present conditions. The whole place is dusty. One nurse had an asthma attack, some were coughing, one so much she started to vomit, their eyes were red and irritated.”

The nurse said no one was told why surgeries were cancelled. She said nurses arrived at the theatres on Monday only to find the tiles pulled up and the ground exposed after work started over the last weekend.

Attempts to contact Medical Chief of Staff Dr Suresh Pooran and senior hospital administrator Ernest Ali for comment were unsuccessful.