Even after the 2018 Kerala floods washed away his house in Nedumbassery, Danush was confident that he could rise back from the tragedy through hard work. But this feeling did not last for long.
Danush, an attendant at PVS Hospital at Kaloor in Kochi, has not received his salary for the last seven months. And he is not alone. Hundreds of other employees of the hospital, including doctors and nurses, have waiting for their salaries for many months.
From specialist doctors to sanitation workers of the hospital, the employees formed a human chain outside the hospital to protest against the non-payment of salaries and against the silence of the hospital administration.
“I have been working in the hospital for the last 13 years as an attendant. There have been delays in the payment of salary, but we would receive it every month. But now, I have not received my salary for the last seven months. Since I lost my house during the flood, and I am living in a rented house, along with my mother. It has become almost impossible to meet the expenses of running the household,” Danush tells TNM.
Though employees have been registering their protest in different ways over the last few days, they were careful not to cause any inconvenience or disruption to the services for patients who come for treatment.
“We have not kept away from doing our duty here in the name of protest. We just want to let the public know about the injustice being done to us by the hospital,” according to a nurse, who did not wish to be named.
'Hospital can't shutdown': Employees
The employees also allege that the management has plans to shut down the hospital. “Though they have not openly told us anything, whenever we raise our voice for not paying our salary, they say we can resign if we want to. Even the management officials have stopped coming to the hospital,” said Vaisakhan S, a nurse who works at the hospital.
Vaisakhan also claimed that the hospital no longer has a functioning HR department. “On Monday, they closed down the outpatient wing of doctors. They also shut down the lift and even the canteen. The hospital administration wants us to leave this place on our own, but we are not backing off from doing our duty. Even when the outpatient wings were closed, the doctors used other open spaces inside the hospital for consultation. It is really disheartening that the administration is not meeting the employees to address the issue,” said Vaisakhan.
Meanwhile, officials in the HR department of the hospital told TNM that the administration has not given any recent intimation on the issue. "The MD had told us in April that salary dues of the employees would be settled by May end. But now, we have not been told anything by the administration," the official said.
However, the Indian Medical Association (IMA), which has expressed their concerns over the plight of the employees, insisted that hospitals cannot shut down at any cost.
Speaking to TNM, Dr Haneesh MM, secretary of IMA Kochi, said, “For the last one year, many doctors have been working here without getting paid. They had cooperated and put their belief in the administration. But the hospital administration has been systematically shutting down each department in the hospital over the last few weeks without giving any explanation to the staff," he said.
Dr Haneesh also said that PVS Hospital has a reputation built over the years because of its dedicated staff. “People from across the state come here because of their belief in the doctors here. So it is important to continue the functioning of the hospital,” he said. He also added that according to the existing labour laws, the hospital can only close down after giving a notice to the employees stating the same before three months.
Officials of the United Nurses Association (UNA) told TNM that hospital authority should give a platform for discussion with the employees.
“We can understand when institutions face financial troubles. But if they have plans to shut down, they should notify the employees and give them their due salary and other benefits. But the present stand of the hospital, which does not give an explanation to its staff, is a grave mistake,” state general secretary of UNA Sujanapal Achuthan told TNM.
The employees have planned to continue their protest in the coming days, without interrupting the functioning of the hospital.