Balangir: Resentment is brewing within the nurse fraternity following the transfer of three nurses from the district headquarters hospital after they had been accused of administering expired saline to patients at the mother and child health ward earlier this week.

The Odisha Contractual Nurse Association has flayed the Balangir chief district medical officer's action and has warned to take to the streets if the transfer order is not revoked. The association's state president Gangadhar Panigrahi said contractual nurses would gherao the district collectorate on Thursday to protest against the unjust transfer.

Last week, one Achyutananda Swain of Gandhinagar in Balangir spotted that expired saline had been administered on his five-year-old daughter in the hospital. Later, two more cases were found in the same ward sparking tension in the hospital.

When attendants and other people drew attention of the ward-in-charge, he examined the saline and got it removed.

Chief district medical officer Sugyanedra Mishra ordered a joint inquiry into the incident. On the basis of the preliminary findings, he transferred three nurses deployed at the ward.

Panigrahi said the nurses had been made the scapegoat to protect senior officers. He said: "It is always the employees at the lowest level who have to bear the brunt in such cases though the officers at the higher levels are the real culprits. Here again, the nurses have been made the scapegoats. We demand a high-level inquiry into the case to find out how the expiry saline was found in the official store of the hospital and how it came to the ward."

"We will also draw attention of the health minister and the chief minister," he said.