This amount cannot even get him half-a-kg milk or a loaf of bread.
Rs 4 is what a pathologist gets for assisting a doctor during a postmortem.
If he is a smoker, he can buy a single cigarette with his hard earned money; or get a couple of candies from the corner shop.
Rs 2 is what a ward boy gets for carting in the body, cutting it open and then sewing it up.
He can afford a bidi, if he is a smoker, or nothing.
This is what is happening in the post mortem house in Sector 94 of Noida where measly amounts are paid to doctors, pathologists and ward boys for carrying out one of the most challenging jobs in the medical profession. To cap it all, even this hard-earned money is not always paid to them by the administration.
Long pending
Dues amounting to Rs 1.20 lakhs for the doctors, Rs 48,000 for the pathologists and Rs 24,000 for the ward boys are pending for the last ten years.
As per the rules structured way back in late seventies, for every postmortem the doctors are supposed to get Rs 10, pathologists accompanying him Rs 4 and the ward boy Rs 2 as labour charges. In the last ten years around 12,000 bodies have been dissected for which the labour charges are yet to be paid.
Rules remain the sameDr Subhash Gupta, who is working at the post mortem house for the last two and a half years, says he has not received a penny for any of the autopsies. "More than 30 years have passed but the rules remain the same. To add insult to injury even the measly Rs 10 is not paid."
About 1200 autopsies are conducted at the postmortem house each year. Till September 26 this year, 738 post mortems had already been done.
Penniless
Lokesh Kumar, another doctor at the post mortem house said, "I have been into this profession for the last three years and on an average I handle eight to ten bodies a month. But I haven't got any money for that."
Chief Medical Superintendent of Noida, S C Singhal, said that the budget allocated to the hospital is much less than what is required. "If we start paying the dues to the doctors, it will be difficult for us to meetother expenses of the hospital."
Source: http://www.mid-day.com/news/2008/oct/071008-Noida-hospital-pays-measly-amounts-to-its-autopsy-staff.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment