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Striking employees gherao JIPMER Director

Staff Reporter

The 1,200-bed hospital wears a deserted look; only 40 in-patients "Among the patients discharged or compelled to move out were several critically-ill patients"

Photo: T. Singaravelou

STANDPOINT: JIPMER staff nurses explaining their stand on the strike to the Director of the institute, K.S.V.K Subba Rao, in Pondicherry on Wednesday.

PONDICHERRY: The striking employees of Jawaharlal Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) on Wednesday gheraoed the Director of the institute, K.S.V. K Subba Rao, for more than three hours and threatened to further intensify the struggle if the autonomy move was not revoked by the Union Cabinet.

Police intervention

Defying the termination warning issued by the Director, striking employees led by the staff nurses of the hospital, barged into his office at around 9 a.m. and did not allow him to attend work till until the police intervened at around noon.

Though they dispersed from his cabin, they continued with their agitation outside his office.

The Director was heard explaining to the employees that he had nothing to do with the Cabinet decision. The employees, comprising of Group B, C and D, wanted the Director and other doctors to join them in their agitation.

"Once the autonomy comes, it would affect you also. It happened in AIIMS. And at every level there would be Government interference. The entire staff and the public would suffer equally," shouted an agitated nurse. As the strike entered the sixth day on Wednesday, the hospital functioning continued to remain paralysed.

The hospital, which used to treat around 4,000 patients from Pondicherry and neighbouring districts of Tamil Nadu, wore a deserted look.

Slow exodus

According to senior administrative staff of the hospital, there were only around 40 in-patients, mostly in the orthopaedic ward on Wednesday.

On the day the strike was launched, on September 8, 1,200 beds were fully occupied and slowly patients started moving out.

Several department heads told The Hindu that among the patients discharged or compelled to move out were several critically-ill patients, some of them under post operative care.

Doctors said there were also patients, who had to be immediately operated upon, including ones needing cardiac surgeries, which were done free of cost.

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