Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar District Hospital is located in Sector 30, Noida. It is the only government multi specialty hospital in Noida. This hospital is presently being managed by Noida Authority. However Noida Authority finds itself unable to bear the expenses of running the hospital. So it has been decided that the hospital will be taken over by the state health department. This decision will be implemented in March 2018. Thereafter the state health department will directly monitor the working of the hospital, including its funding. Till then Noida Authority will continue to fund the hospital.
This decision has caused lots of confusion amongst 100 or so employees of the hospital. They do not know who will be transferred to the health department and who will remain with Noida Authority. The employees are uncertain about their future employment prospects. They are also apprehensive that many of them will get transferred to other places, out of Noida. The contract staff of District Hospital Noida are a worried lot due to this decision by Noida Authority.
Contract staff status
50% of the existing staff who are currently on the payroll of Noida Authority will be absorbed by the health department of UP. Balance 50% employees are at risk of losing their jobs. The financial controller of Noida Authority has said that these 50% are not the employees of Noida Authority. Now onus is on health department to decide about their employment. May be some of these will be retained on performance basis. A list of such employees will be submitted to the state government. This has created panic amongst doctors, OT technicians, lab technicians, pharmacists, nurses and computer operators. Where will these trained medical professionals go? On one side we are running programmes like Skill India and on the other side government is taking away jobs of already skilled people.
District Hospital Noida should retain contract staff
It is said that there is plan to increase number of beds in this hospital from current 70 beds to 300 beds. This is a welcome move, if true. If the number of beds is indeed being increased then these 50% staff should be retained. As per unconfirmed sources health department is of the opinion that even if number of beds is increased the additional requirement of manpower will be met by permanent staff and not by contractual staff. This policy is also not justified. If well trained and experienced contractual staff is already available then why replace them with permanent staff whose salary and perks is much more than current contractual staff. After all this whole exercise has started because there was no fund with Noida Authority to run this hospital.
Article by Col P Chandra (Retd)
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