150 outsourced staff laid off from Delhi's RGSSH as all COVID beds lie vacant

New Delhi: A total of 150 outsourced staff hired for Covid duty during 2020-21 at a Delhi government-run super speciality hospital has been "sacked" by authorities due to administrative reasons, officials said. 

COVID-19 patients are not coming for admission for the last few months and currently, all beds reserved for coronavirus patients are "lying vacant" at Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) in east Delhi, which is one of the factors behind the decision, a senior official said.

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"About 500-600 staff — sanitation workers, security personnel and nursing orderlies — were hired via an outsourcing agency for Covid duty during 2020-21. As no Covid patients are getting admitted, so we have a surplus of staff, and hence 150 were sacked today after much consideration," the official said on Friday.

A group of sacked outsourced staff also sat on the floor of the hospital's lobby to protest the decision, the officials said.

Sources claimed that another factor behind their sacking was "below satisfactory performance".

"However, these staffs are all trained, and if tomorrow Covid cases rise again, we may rehire from among these people, accordingly," the senior official said.

RGSSH has 650 beds and it has been one of the main dedicated Covid facilities in Delhi since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020.

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported that Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College (KCGMC) has terminated the services of around 100 contractual staff nurses, counselors, and other employees who were appointed during the pandemic, despite the hospital already reeling under a staff shortage. 

The contractual employees were appointed during the pandemic to overcome the shortage of staff. The employees, who were removed from their services, were reportedly angry over the decision and staged protest outside the office of the director of the college.

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