Plight of employees at a city hospital

SHILLONG: The lower grade employees of Nazareth Hospital availing ESI are a deprived lot as they cannot avail the health facilities in the parent hospital, but are sent to ESI dispensary for any illness.
Running their families with meager salaries, the lower grade employees, ironically cannot avail the modern health facilities available in the missionary hospital they work for but have to depend on the ESI dispensary where doctors irregularly attend to patients.
“It is out of compulsion that the low grade staffs depend on the ESI elsewhere. They have to take a leave to go to the ESI office, and often return without the treatment being done due to non availability of doctors. Moreover, they are not given any conveyance allowance for going to the ESI office,” sources said.
Sources added that even if a doctor is available at the ESI dispensary, he may not be as competent as their hospital doctors.
According to sources, there is resentment on the part of the employees on the issue. Sources asked that if the employees are not happy with the current ESI system, why was it being enforced upon them?
“It amounts to alleged harassment at work-place,” sources said.
Questions are also being raised on whether an employee working in a hospital should get treatment from another dispensary.
It was learnt that the lower grade employees were not allowed to sit for a while during duty hours and were not allowed even a cup of tea.
Moreover, they should not be seen in groups of three or four during duty hours. The same is the plight of the nurses, but questioning the authorities will evoke threat of punishment.
Sources pointed out that some of these employees have served the hospital right from the time it was a dispensary.  It is time for the hospital administration and ESI to wake up and restore the dignity of the employees to have better healthcare for the patients, sources added.
When contacted, the hospital authorities were not available for comments.