Hospital workers still without OT

By Kushali Atukorale
The Healthcare Ministry has failed to pay overtime allowances for health workers and provide adequate medicines and medical equipments to the hospitals, Health Service Trade Union Alliance (HSTUA) charged.

Speaking at a press briefing yesterday, HSTUA Chairman Saman Rathnapriya opined that the problem had arisen due to the Treasury withholding the grants allocated for health services in 2008.

“We are asking the Healthcare Ministry to pay the workers the required amount of money according to their work hours. None of us are asking for even an extra single cent more than the allowances that should be paid. It’s the right of the workers to get paid for what they have worked,” Rathnapriya asserted.

He pointed out that overtime allowances of hospital workers are not paid in almost all the hospitals around the country, especially in Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, Welisara Chest Hospital, Angoda Mental Hospital, Vauniya Hospital and many more.

“Overtime allowances of the workers in these hospitals are not paid since August 2008. For how long can these workers strike for their rights? The Ministry should look into such matters, as most of the workers are working round the clock, due to the lack of available staff in the hospitals islandwide,” he said.

Rathnapriya added the Healthcare Ministry has limited the overtime allowances since the Treasury has advised the Officials of the Ministry not to waste money when the economy of the county is not stable due to the ongoing war.

Meanwhile, taking up the issues concerning the lack of medicines and equipments in the hospitals, Rathnapriya said that medicines such as soluble insulin, Calcium lactate and Ferrous Sulphate (iron medicine) are not available in almost all the hospital, while CT scan belonging to the Karapitiya Hospital has been out of order for the past eight months.

“We kept on reporting about the machine to the concerned officials. Yet, they continue to come up with lame excuses rather than looking into the matter. I am not able to understand why the officials are playing with the lives of poor patients. What’s the point in having a Health Ministry, if they cannot look into such matters,” Rathnapriya said.

He also said that there is a dire lack of Diagnosis Cards in the National Hospital where the staff has started to use photocopies of an original Diagnosis Card: “It’s shame to say that the National Hospital is facing such issues,” Rathnapriya said.