Operations grind to a halt at PGI

Reeling under a severe shortage of operation theatre technicians,who had proceeded on a mass casual leave to press their demand for pay parity.

Reeling under a severe shortage of operation theatre (OT) technicians,who had proceeded on a mass casual leave to press their demand for pay parity,the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research,(PGIMER),Chandigarh,has had to defer more than 200 surgeries in the last three days of protest. The situation looked grimmer on Sunday as the technicians began an indefinite strike,though they called it off after a meeting that continued till late night.

The technicians have been demanding salaries equivalent to their counterparts in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences,New Delhi. There are various other demands too.

The services are definitely affected, said Professor Amod Gupta,the officiating director of PGIMER. But the protesting employees have to understand that PGI is not a private institution or a shop. We have to abide by the rule of law. We have agreed to their demands and their case has been taken up,so what more we can do?

Manoj Kumar,general secretary of the technicians association,however,said: We have been listening for years to the same assurances,but they never translated into reality. We ask for a written assurance,but they are not ready to give it.

Sunday,however,passed off peacefully since no surgeries were planned. Surgeries in the emergency department were held as usual as the technicians voluntarily deployed ten workers there.

Insiders,however,said over 200 surgeries had been postponed after the technicians went on a mass casual leave from Thursday. The departments hit include Advanced Cardiac Centre,transplant surgery,gynaecology,general surgery,ENT,plastic surgery,neurosurgery,orthopedics and urology.

I was given a date for surgery back in December but my surgery was postponed on Saturday, said a resident of Srinagar,who has been admitted in the hospital for the last five days. I am shocked. I have not been given a new date.

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The attendants of the patient were furious. We came all the way from Srinagar for the surgery and have been waiting for so long. Now we are told the surgery cannot take place due to the strike. Is not it criminal, asked his brother Manzoor Ahmed.

Soon after the protest call,the PGI had redeployed its nursing staff to ensure that operations are held on schedule,but the non-availability of technicians proved almost an insurmountable block.

The technicians are required to fix up monitors in the intensive care and cardiac care units and help the surgeon prepare patients before the surgery,among other things.

To resolve the matter,Gupta met association leaders late in the evening. The meeting that started at 8 pm continued till late in the night,after which Gupta said the technicians had agreed to resume duties. We are pursuing their case to resolve the issue at the earliest, he added.

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The technicians have already joined duties. We were told that our demands will be met within six weeks, said one of their leaders.

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