Very critical situation has developed in Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Jammu and associated hospitals, particularly Super Specialty Hospital (SSH), Jammu. For the second day the SSH continued to suffer the failure of logistics owing to indefinite strike by workers of Mechanical Division of GMCH. Strikes by employees, particularly the daily wagers who have been rendering service for more than twenty years but have not been regularized despite tall promises made to them are becoming frequent. This is not the first time that daily wagers have gone on strike. Of course we have the Essential Services Act which disallows employees of essential services to go on strike, yet this appears a toothless Act because the Government has never been able to enforce the clauses of the Act. It is a difficult and complicated matter to break the strike of casual workers who are handling the infrastructural services like supply of water, electricity, Air Conditioning plant, laboratories and the rest of it.
About 102 need based workers for running AC plants, Gas plants, lifts, sewerage plants, besides electricity and water supply are engaged by the GMCH Jammu… Out of these 102 workers, 62 alone are working in SSH Jammu and about 30 are engaged in GMC Jammu. All the 102 need-based workers have struck work and revived their old demands that have never been fulfilled or addressed satisfactorily by the Hospital administration. The striking workforce is demanding payment of their pending wages of last 25-30 months, regularization of their services and creation of a new Head of Mechanical employees so that they can timely get salary.
Before we proceed to examine the validity of the demands made by the need based workers, let us first have a look at the impact of the strike on the patients and the doctors of the SSH. For the second day no dialysis could be done in the hospital where 20-30 dialysis are done daily. Owing to lack of water conducting of dialysis had to be stopped. No operations took place because there is no electric power. Absence of power has made Air Conditioning ineffective. Patients have been suffocating in hot weather in which the wards have become cauldrons. As electric power remains suspended the lifts do not work. Not only the patients and the paramedical staff even the doctors are also feeling greatly embarrassed. No X-Rays can be taken and no medical machine works. This is the horrible situation in the SSH. In such a sweltering heat, the hospital reminds one of Black Hole of Calcutta. This has forced the patients and their wards to refer to private clinics which the poor people hardly can afford. But under the condition of necessity, they are obliged to private clinics. It has also been reported that the pipes of water supply unit have been broken and the station has become water logged causing damage to the motors.
The crucial question is why the Health Department authorities allowed the situation to come to this pass? We are aware that the need based workers are rendering critical services in the hospitals. Without their assistance, it will not be possible to run the logistics of the hospital. Why then did not the hospital authorities or the officers of the Health Department take a right decision at a right time to meet their demands? Why is it that the authorities remain unconcerned till the time when the need based workers gave ultimatum to the hospital authorities and finally the D Day came and they proceeded on wholesale strike? Is it not to be inferred that the concerned authorities have slept over the matter for too long a time and let the crisis overtake hospital? If that is the case, then the responsible officials should be called to book so that a precedent is set. We all know that now the strike has happened and vast number of people are affected, the Government or the hospital authorities will begin to initiate talks with the striking labour force and a deal will be made as happens every time. The question is that if that is the avowed policy of the Government then authorities should have taken this decision before the working staff decided to go on a strike. Hospital services are among essential services. But as we said in the beginning, it is not easy to enforce the Essential Service Act in this case because the Government should have alternate arrangements ready at hand. That is not the situation. In these circumstances, the hospital senior authorities should enter into talks with the representatives of the need based workers, understand their problems and find a solution without waste of a single minute. Why should their honorarium or salary whatever it is remain unpaid for 25 to 30 months? If only this one grievance is taken into consideration and decided in one day, much of the difficulties caused would be eased. There appears no reason of withholding the wages of the labourers. We hope that the authorities will move fast and resolve the issue and spare the suffering to which ordinary people and patients have been put to.
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