SHILLONG, JULY 25: Employees of the Dr H Gordon Roberts Hospital on Monday staged a marched to the KJPA office to demand immediate removal of the medical superintendent, whom they alleged was solely responsible for the various anomalies in the hospital.
Armed with banners demanding answers to the delay on their demands, hundreds of employees, mainly the non-medical staffs, gheroad the office of the Khasi Jaintia Presbyterian Assembly (KJPA) located at Mission Compound, Mawkhar.
The employees had decided to agitate because of the failure of the KJPA to address the anomalies even after they had submitted three petitions and also staged black flag protest in the hospital since July 21.
“We have totally lost confident on the incumbent medical superintendent, Dr David D Tariang and we demand that he be removed immediately considering that the present functioning of the hospital is deteriorating day by day,” one of the staffs told reporters.
In their 10-point petition submitted to KJPA Senior Administrative Secretary Rev NS Phawa, the staffs informed that they had brought to the notice of the apex body about hospital suffering from acute shortage of medicines, equipment besides doctors.
Stating this shortage has affected the functioning of the hospital, they said, “Due to this, people in need of medical attention are reluctant to admit themselves in the hospital as most of the time they had to buy medicines from private pharmacy. We also don’t have proper equipment for conducting blood test,” adding “Most of the time the hospital also had to refer patients to other hospitals in the city.”
Further the staffs also alleged that doctors who are appointed as intern were also allowed to issue prescription and argued they are shocked by this as these doctors lack experience and may put the patients’ life in danger .
They feel the hospital might close down if such problems are allowed to continue and not address in the right earnest.
One of the staffs alleged that the medical superintendent had informed that the hospital is maintaining a zero bank account, which according to them is a concern in term of future prospect of all the hospital’s employees.
Expressing concern over the failure of the hospital management to implement the revise pay from April 1, this year, they said, “This clearly indicated that all is not well as there is huge crisis in the financial health of the hospital.”
It was reported that the MS had recently tendered his resignation but the staffs are not buying this as he is still continuing to function as the head of the hospital.
Later, the employees decided to resume their work after the KJPA officials assured that the Senior Administrative Secretary Rev NS Phawa, who could not come today due to ill health, agreed to meet them on Wednesday.
When asked, the KJPA officials informed that a 11-member special committee has been constituted on July 12, to streamline the functioning of the hospital. “We cannot give any assurance to the staffs since the matter has been entrusted to the special committee,” Administrative Secretary in-charge Mission & Evangelism, Theology Education Finance, Jingiaseng Samla, Rev ER Kharkrang said.
Meanwhile, the staffs decided not to attend the meeting to be convened by the special committee likely tomorrow in the hospital as they prefer to meet the Senior Administrative Secretary Rev NS Phawa.
Last year, a groups of youths from the church had also accused the Hospital’s Medical Superintendent, Dr David D Tariang and Administrative Officer KT Rynjah of inflating their own salaries without the consent and approval of KJPA, thereby violating the Memorandum of Association (MoA).-By Our Reporter
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