On day Hindu Rao becomes COVID-19 dedicated; doctors, paramedics protest

NEW DELHI: On a day the Hindu Rao Hospital in North Delhi was supposed to start functioning as a COVID-19 dedicated hospital, doctors and paramedics from the facility went on a strike over the lack of basic facilities like quarantine space for healthcare workers. The North Mcd-run hospital has been witnessing protests by paramedics from the last two days as well and doctors from the hospital had earlier also protested against non-payment of salaries, following which the Delhi High Court had to intervene and order the corporation to pay the salaries. The nurse, technical staff and paramedics here have said that they have not received their salaries since April and are demanding to be paid.

The doctors were paid after the intervention of the court; however, the rest of the staff is still waiting for their salaries, which triggered the fresh slew of protests at the hospital. "We don't have proper quarantine facilities. Nor do we have basic facilities like a room to keep or change into a PPE,” said a healthcare worker who was part of the protest.

The protest went on for an hour but the staff has said they would continue to protest if the administration did not intervene to provide them the facilities required to safely treat patients. Millennium Post tried to reach North MCD officials repeatedly and also sent a detailed questionnaire to the top district official, which has not elicited a response. Meanwhile, doctors at the hospital said that there were no problems for patients at the facility despite the protests and Coronavirus patients continued their treatment as scheduled. "We will keep doing our work there is no doubt about it. But that doesn't mean we won't ask for our basic rights," said a nurse who was part of the protest.