JAMMU: Continued strike of para-medical staff of the Acharaya Shri Chander College of Medical Sciences (ASCCOMS) Hospital since the past five days has put lives of several patients in jeopardy, as the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has been suffering the most.
The striking staff is demanding release of salaries and increase in their pay packages.
“We are without pay for the past three months, said an employee, adding that the management was dillydallying notwithstanding the fact that patients were being charged ‘enormously’. .
“Negotiations with the striking employees are in process, ” said Dr Rattan Kudiyar, Principal, ASCCOMS, hoping that the matter will be resolved within a day or two.
The strike has put a big question mark on the condition of serious patients.
60-year-old Rumal Singh, admitted in the ICU ward, is at risk as his two dialysis terms have been missed due to continuous strike.
And, this is not the isolated case. A retired Joint Director of Department of Education, Lalit Gupta, who also needs dialysis twice a week, also finds himself in lurch due to strike. His son, Pankaj, has been literally begging before the management for the treatment of his father.
Life of over twenty similar patients depends upon the ASCCOMS dialysis unit though in-patients in various other departments are suffering too.