Staff crunch hits Covid testing at Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College, Karnal
Parveen Arora
Karnal, April 29
The shortage of staff members has hit the testing work of the RT-PCR samples of Covid at Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College (KCGMC) amid the sudden surge in cases. Earlier, the college was a dedicated Covid hospital for four districts. Presently, only emergency RT-PCR samples are being tested at the hospital.
Urgent treatment samples considered
Among sacked employees, 15 were involved in testing work. In their absence, regular staff has to do the testing apart from their duties. We are only testing RT-PCR samples coming for the emergency health treatment or for persons going abroad. — Official, Kalpana Chawla Govt Medical college
1,000 employees required
The RT-PCR sample is taken of patients with symptoms or those persons, who have travel history. There is a requirement of 1,000 contractual employees. — Dr Jagdish Dureja, Director, Kalpana Chawla Govt Medical College
At the peak of the pandemic, the college had appointed around 100 paramedical staff, including staff nurses, laboratory technician, research scientists and assistant research scientists, but from April 1, their contract was not renewed and services were discontinued.
Now, with a rise in the cases, the sample collection has also increased, but testing is not being done at the same pace.
Among the sacked employees, a total of 15, comprising laboratory technicians, research scientists and assistant research scientists, were associated with the testing work. In their absence, the regular staff had to do the testing apart from their duties, an official said.
“We are only testing RT-PCR samples coming for the emergency health treatment or for persons going abroad,” the official added.
A resident Sagar Nagpal, “RT-PCR samples should be tested by the KCGMC.”
Dr Jagdish Dureja, Director, KCGMC, said due to shortage of staff, they had been facing problem, but were ensuring smooth testing with available employees. Before collecting samples, they checked patients, he added.
The RT-PCR sample was taken of patients with symptoms or those persons, who had travel history, he said. He admitted that there was a requirement of 1,000 contractual employees.
Now, the government had started the process to fill these posts through the Haryana Kaushal Rojgar Nigam, he added. So far, they had received 350 contractual employees, he said. The district recorded eight cases on Thursday, taking the number of the active patients to 17, he added.
