NEW DELHI: Delhi government’s biggest hospital is in a fix over the sudden termination of a big chunk of paramedical staff that was hired on temporary contract during the Covid period. The move has led to a huge shortage of technicians responsible for running the OTs which has resulted in the deferment of planned surgeries.
In an internal communication to the Hospital’s Medical Director (MD), accessed by this newspaper, the administration admitted the shortage and said it’s not possible to provide anaesthesia services at full strength which would result in stalling surgeries.
“..an acute shortage of OT technicians has occurred at various locations including emergency and routine OTs/ICU/Gas Plant/PSA Plant/STC. In view of above, it is not possible to continue Anaesthesia services in full strength as earlier…However, anaesthesia services to Routine OTs will be curtailed till the time this shortage of technical staff is obviated,” the circular from Anaesthesia department read.
However, the department said that it will continue to provide its service for emergency surgeries. “We will continue to provide full services to all Emergency OTs/ICUs/GAS Plant/MGPS and other critical areas requiring anaesthesia support in the best interest of patient care,” it stated.
Following the removal of 51 paramedics and over 170 temporary nurses, the hospital witnessed a crisis-like situation on Tuesday where half of its OTs remained shut and 20 surgeries were stalled.
Meanwhile, to assuage the situation, the hospital’s MD Dr Suresh Kumar approached the Delhi Secretariat and urged the officials to expedite the recruitment of staff to replace the terminated workforce, sources said, adding that the exercise will take more than a week before it comes into effect.
Meanwhile, the administration has extended the shifts of existing paramedical and nursing staff to manage the workforce crisis, sources said. They also said that the administration should have provisioned for replacement before terminating a large number of healthcare workers.
“The hospital is struggling hard to make OTs running. Technicians deployed at the Trauma Centre and PSA plant have been asked to serve in Operation theatres. The nurses are doing double shifts to not affect the patient care many of their colleagues are out of job. However, it will not run for long as exhaustion is sure to catch up with the existing staff due to overstretching their duty hours,” a senior official said.
On Monday, in an unexpected move, LNJP ordered the sudden termination of over 200 contractual employees posted as OT Technicians, Paramedical staff and nursing officers who were hired by the hospital to manage the Covid-19 crisis in May 2021. The order was a conclusion of a long legal battle between the contractual workers and the Delhi government.
Contracts of the affected workers, initially hired for 89 days, were extended till December 2022. After that, the administration fired them.
The affected party went to different courts which allowed them to remain employed with the hospital. However, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) ordered that the Delhi government-run hospital can continue the engagement of these workers "as long as there is work available with the respondents (hospital and government) and/or till the vacancies are filled up on a regular basis."
The terminated workers claimed that their removal was not in accordance with the Tribunal’s order.