Unionism mars SMHS hospital

“One day I found a letter on my desk from the Union. It said the Union is going for a strike the next day and all the work in the wards,in the theatres and even in the Emergency would remain suspended. I was shocked,” said an administrative official of the hospital. “A copy of the letter had also been sent to the Medical Superintendent. But no action was ever taken against the Union”.

Every time the Union strikes work and brings the hospital to a standstill,the administration looks the other way. And this has only encouraged the Unions. “Can you believe it; the doctors come to the hospital earlier than the paramedics and nursing staff and you can’t even ask them why they don’t come on time,” the official said.

The official’s colleague,a surgeon,narrated an anecdote. “I was assisted by three people in the theatre. One of them would never come on time. I complained about it to the Medical Superintendent but after a few days,under pressure from the Union,the administration forced me to withdraw the complaint,” he said. “After that the other two people also started coming late. I couldn’t do anything”.

And when they do come to the hospital,they don’t do their job. “People who have been employed as cooks work as theatre boys. They get promoted by default whether they are eligible are not,” a doctor who works as a Registrar at the hospital said. “Next time they would demand that they be promoted as doctors”.

And it is the patients who have to suffer. “Nurses don’t do night duty most of the time. Instead they give 100-150 Rupees to the trainee nurses who do the night duty for them. The administration knows it but they don’t do anything,” the official said.

The menace of Unionism has also bred widespread corruption in the hospital. “They have a liaison with the lab technicians. They get out of turn appointments for patients to take tests and take commission from them,” the doctor said.

The nursing orderlies,nurses,technicians and paramedics who are put on night duty take the next two days off. This further reduces the efficiency of the hospital which has an acute shortage of staff.

“On the day of the strike (February 11),I asked one of my patients to do a CT scan in the hospital. He came back to me and said there is no one in the CT Scan Lab. I called one of the technicians but he didn’t pick up the phone,” said a doctor. “I then made another technician,who was on leave because his brother had died,call the person and ask him to come to the hospital. He came only after I sent him a vehicle”.

President of the Medical Employees Federation,Shabir Langoo denied all these charges. “We are in no way responsible for the mess the hospital is in. Our Union values discipline and we do not interfere in the administrative matters. The Union acts as a third eye to keep watch on the administration. Whenever they do something wrong,we protest,” Langoo said.

Langoo,however,admitted that they are not able to take the best care of the patents. “But that is because we are very short of staff,” he said.

Langoo denied that the Union was employed by the hospital administration for their personal benefit. “Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Shah is a good man. He forced the Unions that were running illegally in the hospital to shut shop and supported our elected Union,” Langoo said. “And Dr Waseem Querishi is one of the best Medical Superintendents SMHS has ever had”.

Principal Government Medical College,Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Shah said he has received no complaint against the Union. “Unionism is a democratic right,” Dr Shah said. “If there is a complaint against the union,it should come to me in Black and White”.

He,however,declined to comment when asked about the Union being exploited by the administration to fulfil their different ends.