By Ovais Gull
Srinagar: The silence maintained by authorities in National Health Mission over the protest strike by its employees across Jammu and Kashmir has caused overburden to the regular employees in the valley hospitals, thereby hitting the patient care as well.
The NHM employees are protesting for regularization besides equal work equal work since last 20 days in the State but there seems no headway over their demands as the authorities in NHM have so far failed to issue even a single statement over their demands or protests.
Interestingly, the officials of the NHM including the Mission Director Dr. Bhupinder Kumar didn’t take the phone calls by this reporter.
However, the Director Health Service Kashmir, Dr. Kunzes Dolma admitted overload to the regular medicos, saying that the NHM employees went on protest and the regular employees are tackling the whole rush of patients, thus causing overburden to them.
Dolma said that the department has written to NHM officials in this regard and it is they who can take any call over their demands.
Nonetheless, sources in the Valley hospitals told INS that it has become difficult for the regular employees to tackle the huge rush of patients here due to the protest by NHM employees.
“Keeping in view of the sufferings of regular employees, the authorities must take a call over the demands of NHM employees so that the regular employees could heave a sigh of relief,” they added.
Sources said that at least 20-30 percent of medicos have already went on earned leave in these months and at the same time, the protest by the NHM employees has led to heavy work load to the regular employees.
Besides causing heavy work load to the regular doctors and para-medical staff, the patient care has also got affected in the valley hospitals here as the regular doctors present in the hospitals cannot tackle the rush of patients easily, thereby causing immense hardships to the patients visiting the hospitals as well, sources said.
Pertinently, the Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) headed by Dr. Suhail Naik had said that their patience is running out and urged the authorities to fulfill NHM employees demands at an earliest.
Dr. Naik said it is high time that all genuine demands of Doctors of the state must be fulfilled and Government must abide by its order 340-HME Dated 01.06.2018 in which high level committee was framed to address the demands.
“The doctors across the state have time and again protested peacefully without any strike as we don’t want our people to suffer for lack of health care services in strikes but authorities must not take this as our weakness,” he said.
