
NEW DELHI, December 7: The Moolchand Khairati Ram Hospital opened amidst heavy police protection today following orders from the Delhi High Court. The Out Patient Department OPD and the casualty, however, remained non-functional. The hospital had been closed for the past three months and the management had refused to resume health-care services even after directions from the Labour Court.
The management assured the high court on December 3 that the hospital would reopen on December 7 and services would be resumed after a few days of fumigation and cleaning.
The reopening of the hospital was, however, more of a formality as it was mainly the karamcharis who turned up for duty. Employees started reporting for duty as early as 7.30 a.m., representatives of the management came at around 11 a.m.. They spent almost an hour preparing the list of employees and went back after marking the attendance of those who had reported for work. A few doctors, mostly junior ones, also showed up at the hospital.
As per the directions of the high court, the union members who had been suspended during the past three months were barred from entering the hospital premises. They were only allowed to use the rear entrance and their movement was restricted to the union office.