Delhi hospital official apologises to staff over ''no Malayalam'' circular

The nursing superintendent of GB Pant Hospital here has apologised for issuing a controversial circular that barred nursing staff from speaking in Malayalam on duty saying he had no intention to disrespect any Indian language region or religionThe hospital had withdrawn the circular which asked the nursing staff to converse only in Hindi and English on Sunday saying it was issued ldquowithout any instruction or knowledge of the hospital administration and the Delhi governmentrdquoIn a letter to the medical director of the hospital on Monday the nursing superintendent explained the reasons behind issuing the circular and said it was issued in a positive sense and there was no bad intention against Malayalamspeaking staffIn fact the circular was misinterpreted and I didnt even get a chance to explain the same he saidThe official said he had acted on the basis of complaints received on May 31 June 1 and June 2Also ReadlsquoNo Malayalam at workrsquo Delhi hospital rescinds order to nursesThe gist of the complaint was that most of the staff communicates in regional language due to which other staff members as well as attendants of the patients feel helpless It was requested to sort out the matterhellip Complainant clearly mentioned Malayalam languagerdquo the letter by the nursing superintendent readEarlier too patients and attendants had complained verbally to seniors about some staff members using their regional language he saidThe patients would assume they had some serious health issues and thats why languages are changed to hide their condition Hence the circular was issued to ldquoavoid any confusion due to language barrierrdquo the nursing superintendent saidEven then if feelings of any staff were hurt I regret and offer an apology for the same he saidOn Monday the Delhi Health Department had issued a memo to Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education amp Research GIPMER in connection with the controversial circularA source said the health department had asked the hospital to explain why such an order was issuedAn official of the G B Pant nurses association said there are around 850 nurses working at the hospital and of them around 400 are MalayaliThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever