Chhattisgarh healthcare in limbo as 16,000 workers go on strike

India Today

On Get Real India, the focus is on a public health crisis in Chhattisgarh where nearly 16,000 National Health Mission workers are on strike.

Transcript

00:00Let's turn to tonight's Get Real India story. Public health in Chhattisgarh is once again in a crisis.

00:06Nearly 16,000 National Health Mission workers are on strike, locking up health centers and leaving patients stranded.

00:15From sanitation workers bandaging wounds to guards giving injections,

00:20the strike has taken a heavy toll on patients desperately seeking treatment.

00:25It's tonight's Get Real India story.

00:30Nearly 16,000 National Health Mission workers in Chhattisgarh are on strike for a month now

00:43and services at primary health centers across the state are in a limbo.

00:52The employees on strike who include paramedics, nurses and technicians have a charter of 10 demands.

00:59These include regularization of service, great pay with 27% hike, 10 lakh rupees family insurance cover

01:12and better working conditions across centers.

01:15Where we are in the country, like in Meghalaya and in Maddie-Predes,

01:20there is a lot of work and a lot of work done in Maddie-Predes,

01:22so the ratio of 40 and 60 is going to be near-enter.

01:26That's why Kendra has also started to do this.

01:28If the state people want to regulate their own karma,

01:31they want to regulate their own salary, or they want to give a healthy salary,

01:34then our Kendra will be near-enter budget, and they have started to do this.

01:38The government is watching, but there is no difference between those things.

01:41Because the government is watching that the health of the state is so much affected.

01:45The children are dying, they are dying, they are dying, they are dying,

01:49but they are dying, and they are dying, and they are saying that there is no effect in the health of the state.

01:54The Vishnadiyo Sai government says it has accepted some of the demands.

02:01The strike is taking a toll on the ground.

02:26This particular health centre in question is located in Bhatagao,

02:31which almost treats 200 to 300 patients on an everyday basis.

02:36But right now, as you see, it is isolated.

02:39There are no patients, no doctors that are available here, except for a few.

02:44In fact, this particular health centre operates with only 35 staff members,

02:51that has now reduced to 6 to 7.

02:53In the morning from 8 to 8, there are 3 doctors.

02:57And the emergency patients are watching all of the doctors.

03:02Now, what is the result of Hartaal?

03:04The patient has reduced a little bit.

03:08And there are 70 patients.

03:10The Matpurena Health Centre is deserted.

03:15It has not been functional for nearly a month.

03:19The effect of the strike is being felt across the state.

03:20With NHM staff missing,

03:24others are pitching in.

03:42What do you do do you do?

03:43What are you do?

03:44What are you doing?

03:45What are you doing?

03:46It has been a treatment.

03:47What?

03:48It has been a treatment.

03:49What are you doing?

03:50The dressing.

03:51At a community health center in Ambikapur, a sanitation worker was seen bandaging a patient's

04:13wound. And at the Garia Bandha District Hospital, security guard was caught on camera administering

04:22injections to patients.

04:31From Bilaspur to Ambikapur, from Raipur to Garia Bandha, the story is the same. Health centers

04:38locked up, patients forced to go to private hospitals. Chhattisgarh's health network is

04:45in a coma.

04:48Visumi Keval Patel and Rajesh Mishra, Bureau Report, India Today.

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