Nagpur: The second day of state government employees strike made a deeper dent in health services with patients bearing the brunt of staff shortage.
At Daga Memorial Hospital, a women and child hospital, only the emergency cases were dealt. Planned and elective procedures were all postponed and of the 73 nurses only one was on duty.
Dr Seema Parvekar, medical superintendent at the hospital, said, “We minimized the admissions also and hospitalized only difficult and urgent cases. I am not aware of how many deliveries took place today as I am on leave but otherwise there are 38-40 deliveries daily.’ At Daga, 58 class III and 54 class IV employees were on strike while seven class III and 1 class IV employee was at work.
At the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) the nurses were not on strike but administrative staff was. There was sudden inspection of the Medical Council of India (MCI) for which many administrative letters were needed and thankfully the striking staffers helped for this purpose at least. However, the work of CAT scan and MRI was completely hampered as technicians were on strike. Out of the routine 45-50 scan, only a couple of emergency cases were handled.
At Indira Gandhi Government Medical College (IGMC) the effect was less as there are two unions working there. Around 40% staff was working and hence all medical investigations were done. The administrative staff at the deputy director health services was also fully on strike. But it didn’t have much effect. The rural patient services were badly hampered as nurses were on strike.
At private aided schools, a very mild impact was seen. Very few teachers joined the strike from the private-aided schools even on day two when the message had been sent across to almost every member. A school near Kamptee Road witnessed over 90% of their teaching staff joining their striking colleagues. But at the city level there was hardly any participation by aided schoolteachers.
Zilla parishad (ZP) schools faced a bit more heat on day two of the strike with lot of teachers going on strike. Though union leaders claimed 100% participation by teachers, TOI was told that a few were still on the job. A teacher who did not wish to be named, said, “Today almost all teachers went on strike as the message started reaching out. I think tomorrow we might see a complete shutdown of ZP schools as association members are reaching out to everyone.”
Work at Regional Transport Office (RTO) was also hampered as all the clerical staff skipped work on Wednesday in support of the three-day statewide strike. This caused major problems for thousands who flocked the offices for renewal of permits or registration of vehicles. According to senior officials, the strike affected several routine works. At east RTO too, no clerical employees turned up for work while the rural office too remain affected due to the strike. The striking employees claimed that the strike would also affect the transport department revenue, as both Nagpur city and east RTO offices contribute almost Rs1 crore daily.
