Over 400 in-patients have become victims of the tussle between RIMs management and outsourced employees, as latter have gone on strike opposing delay in payment of salaries and non implementation of Government Orders over the wages.
The strike has forced the doctors to postpone important operations, causing untold miseries to poor patients. Senior police officials tried in vain to solve the dispute as workers under the leadership of CITU activists strongly objected to the ‘Swachh Bharat’ programme taken up by medical staff.
They alleged that the hospital authorities planned to minimise the impact of their strike without understanding their grievances. The CITU leaders D.Ganesh and A.Suryanarayana alleged that RIMS authorities released Rs.26 lakh to the contractor though he failed to increase wages and payment of salaries.
RIMS Director T. Jayaraj, RIMS senior medical officers L. Prasanna Kumar, P. Tirupati Rao alleged that the workers should fight agasinst the contractor instead of blaming the RIMS management. Dr. Jayaraj urged District Collector P. Lakshmi Nrusimham to look into the issue and stop the strike by 120 workers including personnel of sanitation wing.
With the lack of cleanliness, the patients are leaving the hospital premises. Many of them feared that swine-flu and other diseases would spread with the poor sanitation in the wards.
