Patients suffer as PGI strike enters fifth day

Patients continue to bear the brunt of strike by outsourced employees, who started their protest on October 10 to press for payment of pending arrears and bonus.

Elective services have been suspended since Friday when sanitary attendants and bearers also boycotted work in solidarity with the hospital attendants. Though the PGI administration had time to resolve the matter as OPDs were closed on Saturday, owing to Dasehra, and on Sunday, none of the top officials made efforts to hold a meeting or hear the grievances of outsourced workers.

Director Vivek Lal, Deputy Director of Administration (DDA) Pankaj Rai and Medical Superintendent (MS) & Head of Department of Hospital Administration Vipin Koushal have been continuously talking about their primary focus on “patient care and safety” and “maintaining the highest standards of healthcare” during this challenging period, but have miserably failed in ensuring both.

On Monday, only old patients were entertained with limited registration time from 8 am to 10 am. Patients coming from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir were denied entry at the OPD gate. Generally, Mondays are the busiest days as OPDs remain closed on Sundays. Many local residents said they thought that the strike must have ended by now.

A man, who came from Kashmir to get his newborn kid treated in the OPD, was disheartened as he came to know that his online booking stood cancelled. An old patient from Sangrur reached after 10 am, unaware of the curtailed functioning of OPDs. He had to return without seeing a doctor.

Contractual sanitation attendants, cooks and bearers have also joined in the protest demanding the release of remainder 20% of their arrears. The strike has led to unhygienic washrooms, garbage heaps in corridors and a shortage of food with Emergency and Advance Trauma Centre where patients are being served “khichdi”, “dal” and curd. On Monday, a video was also circulating wherein a patient’s attendant was sweeping the floor near the bed.

In the morning, regular hospital attendants and sanitation attendants helped in removing the waste in Emergency and Advanced Trauma Centre. By the evening, more waste accumulated, which highlights the fact that one third of regular employees strength wouldn’t be able to manage various tasks till the outsourced staff is on strike.

• Emergency, Trauma and ICU services are operational
• OPD services will be limited to follow-up patient registrations from 8 am to 10 am on October 15.
• New patient registrations and online appointments stand suspended.
• The authorities have requested hospitals across Chandigarh and neighbouring states not to refer new patients to PGI until further notice.