The employees working under the National Health Mission (NHM) continued their strike for the second consecutive day on Tuesday and staged a protest in Ganderbal district in favour of their demands.
The health services across the district were affected by the strike. The striking employees are demanding regularization of their services.
The employees including doctors, paramedical staff, and technicians, working in different health facilities across the district, staged a protest demonstration demanding their regularization. The protesters shouted slogans against the government.
They said they have been discharging their duties for past a decade “however still our demands have not been met.”
“We are demanding the regularisation of our services, equal pay for equal work as per the Supreme Court guidelines, besides other social security benefits,” Dr Shahid, president NHM employees association Ganderbal told Greater Kashmir.
Meanwhile, sources at several hospitals across the district including primary health centres (PHCs), community health centres (CHCs), sub district hospital (SDH) and district hospital said that the work was hit by the strike.
They said the patients were facing inconvenience while getting treatment at the hospitals, adding that at most of the health centres only a single doctor was to see a huge rush of patients.
In many health institutions across the district the Clinical Services (Laboratory, X-Ray, ECG, and Immunization etc) were also hit.
Official sources told Greater Kashmir that in Ganderbal district a total of 250 employees including medical as well as paramedical and technicians are working under NHM, RNTCP, NACO.
Chief medical officer (CMO) Ganderbal Dr Roshan Din Kasana said: “There is an impact on the patient care due to the NHM employees strike. We are trying to make the internal arrangement so that the patient care is not hit.”