The Hindu : New Delhi News : Strike by hospitals’ staff enters second day

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Wednesday, Feb 25, 2009
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New Delhi

Strike by hospitals’ staff enters second day

Staff Reporter

Work at various hospitals badly affected as Group C and D health employees stayed away from work

Employees threaten to intensify their strike if Govt. does not pay heed to their demands
Patients being discharged and “restricted” admissions are being made due to the strike

Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

For a new deal: R.M.L. Hospital employees holding a demonstration in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: Work at various hospitals in the Capital remained badly affected for the second day in a row on Tuesday with striking Group C and D health employees staying away from work.

The employees have threatened to intensify their strike if the Government does not pay heed to their demands.

Rallying under the banner of the All-India Health Employees and Workers’ Confederation, health employees in several hospitals had gone on an indefinite strike on Monday morning.

The affected hospitals include Safdarjung, Kalawati, Lady Hardinge, Hindu Rao, Rajan Babu T.B., Swami Dayanand, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, G.B. Pant, Maulana Azad, Lal Bahadur and Guru Govind Singh Hospital.

Confederation convenor Ram Kishan said: “We have been requesting the Government to take a look at our demands and invite us for talks. Despite our earlier protests, the Government has failed to pay heed to our demands. The strike will continue till the Government takes a compassionate view of our situation. We will be forced to hold protest rallies if the Government does not respond favourably.”

No food, no sweepers

Work in several hospitals, dispensaries and health institutions was badly hit with kitchen, laboratory and laundry staff along with cleaning crew and nursing orderlies staying away from work. Since Monday morning food for patients has not been prepared and operations and laboratory services are badly hit. No sweepers were present to clean the hospital.

Patients are being discharged and “restricted” admissions are being made keeping in mind the absence of support staff.

The employees on strike are demanding that their hospital patient care allowance be continued and brought at par with the nursing allowance and maybe part of the basic pay.

They want that this facility should be extended to workers of all the health institutions in the country.

They are also demanding that the pay scale of paramedical services be placed in PB-II band instead of PB-I and that a Paramedical Service Council of India be constituted.

“One of our major demands has been that the government should stop outsourcing and taking in staff on contract in any form and at any level. This trend has to be stopped immediately in the health sector and all the posts/works should be replaced by regular staff,’ added Mr. Kishan.

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