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Employees' strike hits work in many hospitals

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Work at some of the major Delhi Government hospitals was affected on Thursday morning with the nurses and group C and D staff going on strike.

The five-hour strike that started at 7 a.m. hit work at Guru Nanak Eye Centre, Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan Hospital and Maulana Azad Medical and Dental College, catching patients off-guard. While the strike was called off by noon, emergency and casualty services remained unaffected.

The workers on strike took out a protest march from the Maulana Azad Medical College premises to Raj Ghat in the morning and later submitted a list of demands to the Chief Minister.

A spokesman of Sanyut Sangharsh Samiti, a coalition of nurses and group C and D staff of major Delhi Government hospitals, Gyaneshwar Tiwari, said: "The Government has failed to pay attention to our longstanding demands and we were left with no option but to proceed on strike. Patients did have a tough time with no Out Patients Department cards being made and maintenance of hospitals was also affected in the morning.''

The Samiti is demanding that privatisation and hiring of staff on contract be stopped, the 2,500-odd vacant posts across various Delhi Government hospitals be filled up immediately, irregularities in the basic pay scale be removed and hospital employees be given free health cover.

"We have submitted a petition to the Chief Minister and asked her to look into the matter as several reminders to the State Health Ministry have not worked. In case our demands are not looked into, we will proceed on an indefinite strike. The State Government has been opening several health care facilities without ensuring that there is enough staff to support the same. We are asking the Government to employ the surplus medical staff at these facilities,'' added Mr. Tiwari.

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