MEDIATION PROBLEM – 1

DeliCare Hospital is one of the most reputed hospitals of the city of Mumbai. Since its
inception in the 1978, DeliCare has been a pioneer in inculcating advancements in healthcare
technology in their practice and has thus garnered the reputation of being one of the most
revered and trustworthy hospitals in the city. It also has on its payroll some of the most
esteemed doctors and other work staff from all over the country.

On October 2nd, 2019, concerns were raised to the hospital management by Shruti Aggarwal,
one of the nurses, regarding the poor working conditions for the nurses at the hospital. She
highlighted that the employment contracts of each nurse stipulate that they were required to
work for a maximum of nine hours per day. The contract also stipulated that they would not
have to work beyond these said hours, and would not get additional compensation if done so.
She however pointed out, that the hospital is grossly understaffed, as a result of which, each
nurse is being forced to work overtime without any additional compensation. In lieu of the
low wages that the nurses are being paid, she requested the management to resolve this issue
by hiring adequate number of nurses and providing adequate compensation for the number of
hours that the nurses work for. Mr. Abhinav Singhania, the Chairman of the Board of
Directors of DeliCare, understanding the gravity of this request promised to find a remedy to
this situation.

However, on November 25th 2019, the hospital let go of two nurses to overcome the issue in
hand. This decision of the Board enraged the nurses who decided to take matters into their
own hands and threatened to go on strike if the Board failed to find an actual solution to the
problem immediately. On December 2nd 2019, Dr. Jaidev Singh prescribed drug ‘Xelote’ to
be administered to a patient. The drug gave the patient a severe case of seizures. The patient’s
family decided to expose this careless attitude of the hospital and release the story to the
press. Upon finding out that the said drug was banned in the country for causing extreme
side-effects as in this case, the Board released a statement to the press stating the doctors’
innocence and blamed the nurse for negligently prescribing the medicine to the patient. This
act of the Board was the last straw for the nurses who under the lead of Shruti Aggarwal,
decided to go on strike and refused to show up to work from the very next day.

Subsequently, it came to the notice of Delicare that LicoLife, an upcoming rival hospital,
decided to hire these nurses. The Board of DeliCare, realising the seriousness of the situation
and to prevent the nurses from being poached by a rival hospital, initiated mediation talks
with the nurses. The mediation is scheduled to be held between the Board of Directors and
Shruti Aggarwal and the other nurses.