Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Hygiene hit as hospitals face shortage of cleaning staff

C. Maya

Staff unions thwart attempts to hire temporary staff

Thiruvananthapuram: Cleaning activities in all Government hospitals in the district have been severely affected owing to shortage of cleaning staff. All efforts by the Government to resolve the situation by hiring temporary staff are being thwarted by various hospital employees’ unions, citing issues of seniority or promotion.

Last week too, Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy had announced that all vacancies in Government hospitals would be filled by entrusting the hospital development committees (HDCs) with conducting walk-in-interviews to recruit people on daily wages. She said the wages would be paid by the Government and not the HDCs.

Rather than opting for such stop-gap arrangements that are bound to end up in legal wrangles later, the Government should frame special rules that will allow it to recruit hospital staff directly as and when vacancies arise, health officials say.

Already, more than 800 persons who were recruited through employment exchange as Grade II attenders on a temporary basis in 1998 have been continuing in service on the basis of various court orders. The Government has approached the Supreme Court on the issue, but till it is resolved, neither can these temporary recruits be promoted to Grade I nor can the Government directly recruit Grade I staff.

This has created an acute shortage of Grade I staff who are crucial for cleaning and disinfection activities in hospitals.

Of the total 461 sanctioned Grade I posts in the district, 377 posts are lying vacant. In the 1,600-bed Government Medical College Hospital (MCH), of the 135 sanctioned Grade I posts, 104 are vacant. The situation is similar in all Government hospitals in the district.

“Two years ago, we tried to recruit about 60 Nursing Assistants to rectify their acute shortage in MCH and SAT Hospital. This kicked up a lot of fuss with the District Medical Officer being gheraoed by various unions alleging ‘backdoor’ recruitment,” a health official says.

The appointment of cleaning staff to Government hospitals is guided by two rules framed in the early Fifties – part-time contingents’ rules and the special rule for last grade servants.

In the Health Service, the entry category of cleaning staff is that of part-time sweepers, for which the required qualification is just ‘literacy in Malayalam language’. They are recruited through the employment exchange.

The part-time sweepers can go up the ladder to become Nursing Assistants (NA), even though this is a post that requires some technical qualification. Nursing Assistants or Grade I or II attenders cannot be recruited directly according to the existing rules.

Moreover, in 1982-83, the then Government issued a special order – part-time sweepers were given the option of continuing in the same post till the age of 70 or they could opt for promotion. Thus many who enter the service in this category choose to stay on, affecting the recruitment to other promotion posts. Of the 160 sanctioned posts in the district, there are only 10 vacancies.

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