Inspection finds Hospital Staff Sleeping on Duty, authorities take action

Initiating action, a Sweeper has been suspended and several other staff are facing one-day salary cut for their alleged negligence in duties, adds Hindustan Times.

The inspection was conducted by the UT health secretary Yashpal Garg on the intervening night between March 16 and 17.

He visited the civil hospital in Manimajra, civil hospital in Sector 45, GMSH in Sector 16 and Sector 32, Health and Wellness Centre in Sector 8 etc.

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As per the latest media report by Hindustan Times, when the Health Secretary visited the civil hospital in Manimajra, the first floor general ward and a private ward were found to be locked from inside.

While the nursing officer informed that the private ward was being used for storage purposes, it was opened by a sweeper after knocking for some time. The sweeper, who was taking a nap, has been suspended by the Health Department.

Speaking to HT, the Health Secretary Garg said, "The Sweeper has been suspended and the outsourced agency has been asked to substitute him, preferably from the outsourced staff who were deployed during the Covid wave but were subsequently disengaged."

Referring to the general ward on the first floor, Garg said, "The security guard was called, but even she could not open the door. Some patients and attendants, who were inside the ward, could not find the key for the lock. Later, a ward boy unlocked the door and the nursing officer was found sleeping inside the room. I was informed that the ward was locked after the doctor's round around 10 pm to avoid any kind of theft."

"However, locking the ward from inside could have been disastrous in the event of any incident of fire etc. The justification for locking the ward to avoid theft is not acceptable and seems to be a cover-up for the actual reason of having a good sleep after locking the room," he mentioned, adding that an explanation has been sought from the senior medical officer (SMO) of the hospital regarding the matter.

Apart from this, the SMO has been asked to submit reasons for manual registration system at the hospital instead of computerized process. The hospital has been directed to switch to computer-based system at the earliest.

In the case of Civil Hospital in Sector 45, several nursing staff were missing from the duty areas and were found chitchatting. The inspection at Sector 22 hospital revealed a sweeper was sleeping inside the ECG room.

Although the doctors and staff of Sector 16 GMSH were busy attending patients at around 1.30 am, the Health Secretary told the daily, "A female attendant of a pregnant patient complained that the doctor on duty at the Labour Room at the Sector 45 hospital didn't have the knowledge of C-Section delivery, so they were forced to travel to GMSH-16 amid labour pain."

Six Security personnel of GMSH (Sector 32) were also found to be negligent as they were gossiping instead of attending people coming to the emergency wing. In fact, similar observations were made during a night inspection on September 19 as well, adds the daily.

Surprise inspection was also conducted at the Health and Wellness Centre in Sector 8 on the next morning. At that place, the staffs were found to be late for work.

Action has been initiated against those found negligent in their duties. The Health Secretary has ordered a disciplinary action and has mentioned that the outsourced staff, who were found sleeping or absent from their duty areas, would face one-day salary cut. Those, who joined their duties late, would be regarded as absentees and their performances would be closely monitored for the next three months.

In case of regular employees, those late or absent would be marked on casual leave and the deduction would be included in the service record of each staffer.