Patients at the associated hospital of Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) are facing problems due to the agitation of the contractual workers of Uttarakhand Purva sanik kalyan Nigam limited (UPNl). The UPNl workers are on a two hour work boycott call on their single point demand of being converted into departmental contract in the department they are deployed.
In the associated hospital of GDMC, which is the biggest hospital of the State the work boycott has affected the normal functioning. The UPNl workers are posted at important positions which involve direct deal with the patients like registration counters, billing section, pathology lab and radiology department. The hospital administration has deployed three members of permanent staff to man the registration counters where instead of computerized registration forms they are giving hand written registration forms to the patients and asking them to submit a photo copy of the same so that they can keep it for record. It is creating an additional burden on the patients and one can see a long queue of patients outside only public photocopy shop of the hospital. The hospital administration has not made any alternate arrangement at the billing counters and the patients advised some tests by the doctor have to wait till the two hour work boycott ends at 11 am. “First I stood for half an hour outside the registration counter then stood in another line outside the photocopy shop and then waited for about another half an hour to see the doctor. The doctor has advised blood test but due to the strike of the hospital staff there is a long queue outside the billing counter and I don’t have any strength left for standing in queues anymore so I have decided to get the pathology tests done at a private lab’’ said Poonam Rawat of Hathibarkala.
The Medical Superintendent (MS) of the hospital Dr K K Tamta said that alternate arrangements are made at registration and pathology lab in wake of the work boycott call of UPNl workers.
The President of the UPNl contractual workers association of Doon hospital, D S Rawat said that they are waiting for the decision of the state cabinet proposed for the day. He said that the UPNl workers would be forced to go on a complete strike if the government fails to accept their demand.