Hindu Rao nurses and paramedics strike; 'hosp barely working'

New Delhi: North MCD's Hindu Rao Hospital, where a mock drill for the COVID-19 vaccine was conducted on Friday, is barely in a functional state due to nursing and paramedical staff going on an indefinite strike starting from Thursday, again over unpaid salaries.

Nurses and Paramedical staff at Hindu Rao have not received their salaries for the past three months now, salaries for October, November and December are still pending. Moreover, the cleaning staff has received salaries for almost five months now.

Indumati Jamwal, Head of the Nurses Union Association, said, "We are 350 nurses in total at Hindu Rao and except 3 or 4, who chose to not participate, all are on strike. The hospital is paralysed and all departments are as good as locked because it is next to impossible to run any hospital without nursing staff." Hindu Rao is a 900-bedded hospital and the largest under North MCD.

Questioning the disparity in distributing salaries to healthcare workers in the middle of a pandemic, Jamwal also said that there are 19 cases of pending salaries currently in the Delhi High Court against the

MCDs. "However, only

doctors have been favoured," she said.

Doctors at Hindu Rao have received their salaries for the month of October, the hospital's Resident Doctors' Association said. Even grade-4 employees such as safai karamcharis have not received their dues when the High Court had clearly mentioned that lowest-rung workers should be paid, healthcare workers at the hospital said.

"When we spoke to Jai Prakash ji, he told us salaries for October will be arranged within this month. However, we were not given any assurance about the timeline or about the rest of our pending salaries. We will not call off our strike till our salary (at least for October) gets credited in our bank accounts," Jamwal added.

Dr Abhimany Sardana, President of Hindu Rao's RDA said that there is a high probability of doctors going on strike too if they do not receive their pending salaries within this month.

As far as the vaccine dry run at the hospital is concerned, Jamwal said that it was arranged by the Delhi Government. "Workers and even dummy patients were provided by them. Hindu Rao itself is

just the venue. Even when the vaccine itself will be administered, most of the staff will be provided by the Delhi Government".

North MCD had said that their vaccine dry run on Friday was successful even though only limited nursing and paramedical staff were present. North Delhi Mayor Jai Prakash had said on Thursday that he was trying to negotiate with various workers' unions and asked them for 10 days' time to pay back dues.