New Delhi: Health workers, the mainstay of India's workforce that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed as 'warriors' fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, employed in government hospitals across the capital, claim they're being discriminated against and exposed to great dangers in the line of duty.
News18 spoke to health workers employed on contractual basis as nurse orderlies at various government hospitals and among them is DK Gautam, a nurse orderly employed at GTB hospital. Gautam gave many examples of what he said was "untouchability" being practiced at many hospitals, including the one in which he was employed.
"There are signs on washbasins explicitly prohibiting sanitation workers and nurse orderlies from using that facility. Blood samples of all the staff who work in special Covid-19 wards are taken after they finish their 14-day long shifts. The senior doctors and all are allowed to remain at home for the following fortnight, while some of us are asked to report to duty within three to four days of our report coming negative. The health of senior staffers is monitored regularly, while one of our colleagues who tested Covid-19 positive had to wait outside the hospital for 12 hours, all by herself, before she was admitted," he said.
His wife, Pinky Gautam, who also works at the hospital as a nurse orderly, tested positive after a patient in the hospital's ICU unit, whom she was attending to, died of the virus. It took hospital authorities 24 hours to arrange a hospital bed for her after her reports came back positive.
"They call us 'warriors', announce compensation for those of us who die on duty. Instead of eulogising our deaths why don't governments take care of our health while we are alive and tending to Covid-19 patients? Nobody has called us to tell what the best practices are. We have not been briefed on how to take care of ourselves. This whole crisis has taught us that we — who form the lowest rung of the healthcare sector — are second class citizens," Gautam says.
A female nurse orderly who works at a leading government hospital in Delhi said she had developed Covid-19 symptoms for the past 15 days. "It started with mild cough and then I had problems breathing. I called for an ambulance and was taken to my hospital where they said I had nothing. I was given an injection and sent home. After returning home I developed fever again I again went to the hospital." This was April 22. Again she was administered an injection and sent home. But this time she got her blood tested. The reports will come in three to four days.
"I am worried...I am the sole earning member of my family. And I take great care of my patients. Why is this happening to me? If something happens to me, there will be no one to take care of my handicapped husband and children," She spoke with a clearly audible strain.
Nurse orderlies work as assistants to nurses. Their jobs is to help patients bathe, use toilets etc. Another female nurse orderly working at a leading government hospital in the capital said that she and her colleagues were not even given PPE kits while the rest of the senior staff got it. "After a while, when we made a lot of noise, they asked us to use gowns that nurses had used once. We still use them. Nurses wear it for a day and we wear it for as long as they don't get blood stains or any other stains," she said.
Many such health workers, who earn between Rs 8,000 to Rs 12,000 per month, did not wish to be identified for the fear of losing their jobs.
A nurse orderly at a government hospital said that he and many colleagues of his had not even been able to report to their hospitals because they weren't given valid identification papers in time.
"A colleague of mine got beaten by police while he was arguing with them to be allowed to work at his hospital. Those of us who aren't able to make it to hospitals are getting their wages cut, despite Prime Minister himself requesting people not to deduct wages of workers during this tough period. And imagine this happening to those of us who are risking our lives to heal infected people."
(News18 reached out to the medical director of GTB hospital for comments on Monday. The story will be updated as and when the response is received.)
Comments
0 comment