Server snag, work boycott keep patients waiting

LUCKNOW : Technical snag in the server coupled with work boycott by contractual staff made patients in government hospitals wait for over an hour to get their OPD slips to be able to see a doctor on Thursday.

The problem in the server started at around 10 am, when the e-hospital staff, that was on a two-hour work boycott, came to work. As they tried to issue OPD slips, the server developed a snag. The slips could not be issued despite repeated attempts.

The situation was similar at government hospitals across the city. “I have been waiting for the past one hour and I am tenth in the queue. My position has not changed in the past one hour,” said an attendant in queue at Civil hospital.

The e-hospital staff boycotted work as they wanted to be included in NHM and not kept as outsourced staff. They also wanted terminated staff members to be reinstated. Badrish Chandra Srivastava, an agitating staff at Balrampur hospital said, “We came back to work at 10 am after work boycott and found the server was not working. We then started issuing manual slips.”

Patients who had been waiting in queue since long started protesting when they got to know that the server had a problem and OPD slips would not be issued. Thousands of patients along with their attendants had gathered at the hospitals since morning.

Apart from new patients, there were old patients also who had come for a follow-up examination and required an OPD slip. Despite rain there were long queues at all hospitals including Dufferin, Lok Bandhu and Civil hospital. “The number of patients was high, perhaps due to the rain in the past three days, so the queue was also long,” said a government hospital doctor.

The contractual staff has planned another protest on Friday at eco garden.

THE PROBLEM IN THE SERVER STARTED AT AROUND 10 AM, WHEN THE E-HOSPITAL STAFF, THAT WAS ON A TWO HOUR WORK BOYCOTT, CAME TO WORK