Facility for railway staff in dire straits

The Golden Rock hospital on the premises of Golden Rock Workshop is the lifeline for many railway employees undergoing treatment. Patients from various parts of the division are admitted to this hospital.

The indifference of staff towards patients is turning bad to worse daily, says KC Neelamegam of Makkal Sakthi Iyakkam. For blood tests, patients are sent to private labs, but the bills are submitted to the Divisional Welfare Officer’s office for claims.

An employee of the diesel shed said, “I admitted my father two weeks back and have spent close to `4,000 on various tests performed in private labs in the city. But so far, there seems to be no improvement in his health. With every railway employee getting medical cover, spending money on every lab test is a daylight robbery.”

The hospital also lacks permanent doctors. Many department heads are visiting doctors from the Zonal Railway Hospital from Perambur in Chennai. Doctors working in the facility are temporary employed on contract basis for two years, said a hospital source. The recruitment of nurses have been stopped long back and existing nurses in the hospital are stretched to their limits, he added.

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