Thiruvananthapuram’s mental health centre security staff not paid wages for 11 months

Pandemic hits funding sources of Hospital Development Committee

Fourteen staff members of the Government Mental Health Centre at Oolampara in the capital have not been paid their salaries for the past 11 months due to funding issues owing to COVID-19 outbreak. According to sources at the centre, the salaries of the employees, including security staff and cooks, were last paid in May 2021.

"Salary payments had been delayed in the past too, but this is the longest gap yet. After the COVID-19 outbreak, six months of pending salaries were paid from the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF). Now, it has become 11 months. It is hard to make ends meet as most of us have pending loans. I faced a revenue recovery order. One of the doctors here helped me repay the amount," says Prem Pradeep, a security staff.

The salaries for the security staff and the cooks are paid by the Hospital Development Committee (HDC). The main revenue for the HDC used to be the fees collected from nursing students during their month-long training programme at the centre. After the COVID-19 outbreak, the training programmes stopped, cutting off the funds.

Unlike the security staff at other hospitals, those at the Mental Health Centre need to not only guard the gates but also aid the doctors while handling patients, especially violent ones. Quite a few of them have also sustained injuries in the process.

"It is true that the 14 staff members have not been paid salaries since May last year. Now that the training sessions have been restarted, we will be able to give one month's salary soon. But to clear off the backlog, the State government has to provide us financial support. We have sent several letters to the authorities concerned over the past few months. Any action that is initiated is halted when it reaches the Finance department," says Anilkumar, Superintendent of the centre.

Though a Government Order issued in 2018 states that the HDC staff salary can be drawn from the general wages head if HDC funds are inadequate, this has not been followed here. The centre is also beset with other issues, including shortage of beds and staff. Although the total bed strength is 531, there are a total of 719 patients now. Some fully recovered patients who are fit for discharge are still confined here as their relatives are reluctant to take them back. Post the COVID-19 outbreak, there have been several cases of inmates trying to escape from the centre, mostly to return home.

Though a Hospital Monitoring Committee, headed by the District Judge, had recommended an increase in the number of security staff members to 30, the staff pattern has remained unchanged for years. The functioning of the de-addiction centre, child psychiatry facilities, rehabilitation centre and family wards have, however, not been resumed after these were discontinued during the pandemic.