The strike in municipal hospitals could have been avoided and patients would not have suffered if funds were used judiciously by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). According to a senior doctors at Bara Hindu Rao Hospital, it is a matter of record that the MCD was running on shortage of funds and despite that, senior officials of MCD did not used the money on priority basis.
“Huge chunk of money was spent on IT sector and construction projects which were not so important. The funds for the salary should not have been used for other purposes,” said Dr Aditya, RDA president, Hindu Rao Hospital, alleging misuse of funds in the health sector.
“The funds which come for the health sector are segregated for construction, salaries and other projects. Every time, a new building is demolished, but an old building is never repaired. Funds kept for the salaries are diverted for the other projects. There is problem in governance and administration. The situation which arose was the result of political blamegame,” he said, adding if funds for the salaries are not diverted into other projects, then such situation will never arise in future.
“Even, in the time of crisis, when MCD was lacking in funds, most of the construction projects were going on. What was the urgency that doctors are not getting the salaries and construction projects are continuedIJ” asked Dr Aditya.
From Saturday morning, doctors resumed their duties and they have been given assurance from the higher authorities of MCD that from now on, doctors will be paid salaries on time.
“We don’t want to make patients suffer by going on strike. Government should understand that no one can work with an empty stomach,” said another doctor at the Hindu Rao Hospital, who resumed his duties on Sunday.
The last and first week of January and February respectively observed complete shutdown of the health services in all the municipal hospitals due to indefinite strike called by municipal employees and doctors in the wake of urgent release of their last four months’ salaries.
As many as 50,000 agitated civic doctors, paramedical staff, nurses, technicians and sanitation workers in the health sector for MCD protested against the MCD and the city Government for not being paid salaries.
All the doctors, municipal-based dispensaries, maternity home, polyclinic, para-medical staff, technicians and four major hospitals of civic agencies — including Bara Hindu Rao Hospital, Swami Dayanand Hospital, Kasturba Hospital, Girdhari lal Maternity Hospital Infectious Diseases Hospital and Rajan Babu Tuberculosis hospital — halted services, as a result of which patients had to face harrowing time.
Posters have been displayed all over MCD hospitals to inform about the strike. During the strike, the worst-hit hospital was the MCD’s biggest Bara Hindu Rao Hospital, which caters to more than 10,000 patients in its OPD per day.