The strike by the sanitation workers has converted the Doon Hospital here into a virtual garbage dump. These workers are on strike since Monday and in three days the sanitation condition in the hospital have reached nightmarish conditions.
On the issue of alleged corruption by their supervisors, the sanitation workers of Doon Hospital are on strike under the aegis of Uttarakhand Swasthya Safai Karamchari Federation. They are demanding that the supervisors should be removed and new supervisors should be selected from among them.
On the third day of strike on Wednesday the sanitation conditions of the hospital took such a bad shape that the entire hospital campus resembled a garbage dumping site. The alarmed hospital authorities virtually pleaded with five regular sanitation workers to pick the broom after more than 10 years. These five workers are the confirmed sanitation workers and after outsourcing the sanitation works to private contractors through UPNl in 2011, these workers were discharging duties of ward boys. The efforts of these five workers however failed to create any effect due to the enormity of the work.
On Wednesday The Pioneer team visited many wards of the hospital and was shocked to see the condition in which the in house patients admitted in various wards of the hospital are forced to live. It was found that the condition is all the wards were not fit for human stay. The stench in the wards was unbearable with overflowing garbage bins, floor strewn with all sort of medical and other wastes and soiled toilets. Shockingly the condition of isolation ward meant for dengue patients was as pathetic as other wards. The very concept of isolation ward to keep the patients separated so that they do not get secondary infection seem to fly on the face of hospital authorities with heaps of hospital waste garbage enough to make a healthy man sick. The doctors and other staff working in the hospital admitted that it is very difficult to work in such pathetic conditions. Some of hospital staff was seen wearing masks to protect themselves from the infection and foul smell of garbage.
One of the relative of admitted in house patient said that they are planning to shift to some private hospital as it is becoming unbearable to stay here. Kishan Singh of Tyuni Block of Dehradun district whose son was admitted in ward no 16 said that being poor they are not in position to shift from the government hospital. When contacted the PMS of Doon Hospital Dr RS Aswal said that the strike of sanitation workers would be strongly dealt with and the hospital is planning to take immediate measure to improve the sanitation condition of the hospital.