Ranchi: The strike by nearly 10,000 contractual paramedical staff in the state has adversely impacted the health care services in the state especially those across Sadar Hospitals located in 24 districts.
People who turned up at the hospitals to get their Corona tests, lab tests, ECG or X-Ray done had to face lots of problems with some of the family members being forced to carry the relatives in their arms and move around the hospital.
The state government on its part was contemplating to declare the strike by contractual paramedical staff as a criminal offence. Amid the Corona crisis these contractual para medical staff look after sample collection to reporting. Since 750 lab technicians are also supporting the strike therefore it has started to impact overall Corona tests in the state which were earlier around 8,500 on a daily basis and now has come doe to less than 5,000 per day.
The pregnant women are facing the most burnt caused by this strike as many of them who came to the hospital to get their tests done could not find a single trolley man due to which the kin were forced to take the patients in their arms to the doctors.
The agitators are demanding that they should be made permanent and also be given same pay for the sample work, EPF deduction, incentives on the likes of those being lives in Bihar, Haryana and Odisha and all benefits in case of demise which is paid to the permanent staff.
(*Image for representational purpose only)