Patients continue to suffer due to the strike of employees of the Raipur Community Health Centre (CHC) here. These employees are demanding immediate release of their pending salaries. The CHCs of Raipur (Dehradun), Sahia (Dehradun), Thatyud (Tehri) and Naugaon (Uttarakhashi) are being run under Public Private Partnership (PPP) model by a private player, Rajbhra Medicare private limited. The medical and other staffs of all these CHCs are on an indefinite strike from last four days in protest against delay in their salaries. All these CHCs cater to a population of 30000 which is suffering due to the strike and the health department is yet to make alternative arrangements for them. The Rajbhara Medicare private limited claims that the state health department owes `2.90 Crores to it due to which it is facing problem in disbursal of salaries.
On the orders of Director General (DG) Health Services, one of a Joint Directors, Dr Suman Arya visited hospital on Monday. She held discussions with the hospital administration and representatives of the hospital staff but nothing concrete came out of the talks. It is learnt that the Dr Arya also discussed the modalities for taking over the management of the hospital from the private player.
When contacted the Chief Medical Superintendent (CMS) of hospital, Dr Anand Shukla told the Pioneer that three doctors from nearby health facilities were pressed into the service due to the strike of the staff. He however accepted that very few patients turned up in the OPD as the agitated staff members blocked the main gate of the hospital.
The delay in the payment to the private player has caused the problem in the past too. It is learnt that the private player prompts the staff members to go on the strike after which the payments are released by the government. One of senior officer of health service said that the private player has made it a habit of pressurizing the government to extract its pending payments.
Health experts are of the view that the state government should take over the hospitals running under the PPP model as the model has failed to work.