Staff stir hits Covid patient care at Gandhi Hospital

Hyderabad: Healthcare services were hit after nearly 600 class 4 (outsourcing and contract) employees from various wings in Gandhi hospital stayed away from duties and went on a protest demanding regularisation of jobs and hike in pay among others.

At present, Gandhi has over 870 Covid patients, out of which 127 are in wards, 523 on oxygen support and 227 in ICU. Already 220-odd outsourcing nurses have stopped attending to duties for the last five days and are on protest with the same demands. These employees work in wards (patient care), cleaning and sanitation, security, morgue and dead-body packing duties, etc. They raised their demands on a couple of occasions in the last few weeks, especially after the government announced a 10 percent incentive to frontline healthcare staff.

DME talks with striking staff fail

Hyderabad: Talks with the striking outsourcing and contract employees of Gandhi hospital on Tuesday by Director of Medical Education (DME) Dr Ramesh Reddy failed.

The DME had appealed to the Gandhi hospital staff to call off their protest in view of the corona pandemic. He said that assurance has been given to hike salaries. As regards the regularisation of jobs, he said the issue is pending in the court.

But, the striking staff have decided to continue their protest on Wednesday. Meesala Shiva Kumar, INTUC leader and Gandhi staff member, urged the government to positively respond to their justified demands.

"No one from the Health department have spoken to us or reached out to us to resolve our demands," he said, adding that the assurances given by the DME were not clear.