Nurses in the Private Health Sector in Kerala: Any Lessons Learnt from Their Strikes in Recent Years?

Abstract

This article analyses the series of strikes initiated by staff nurses in private hospitals in the state of Kerala. In spite of the growth of private sector health care institutions, working terms and conditions of nursing professionals are structured by a deeply iniquitous ethos. A number of strikes were organised that generated public interest and resulted in some potential long-term changes in the perspectives on health care professionals’ recruitment and terms of work. How did the nurses in the private sector negotiate their demand for better working conditions using strike as a strategy? What were the responses of the key stakeholders and the general public? It is obvious that gender mediated the negotiations between the state, private sector hospital managements and unions, on the one hand, and nurses who were predominantly women, on the other. In that case, what were the ways in which gender was factored into the discussions? This bears important implications for the regulation and governance of the private health care sector. This article thus argues that the legislation on clinical establishments should be expedited and any attempt to jeopardise it should be resisted; rather there should be collective efforts to work on the shortcomings of the Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) Bill.