Contract Covid-19 staff protest at KGH in Vizag, demanding their jobs back

The contract staff at King George Hospital (KGH) started a protest in Vizag, on Saturday, on their removal from their duties due to their respective contracts ending. This protest has been continuing for the past two days. According to the sources, during the pandemic situation, KGH had contracted some additional staff, such as technicians and nurses, for Covid-19 related duties.

A total of 148 contract staff members, made up of 124 nurses and 24 technicians, were appointed during the Covid-19 pandemic at the CSR block of KGH. The staff had been taken on a contract basis. Recently, they were informed that they need not come back to duty from 1 August 2021, as the one-year contract period is ending. On this, the staff staged a protest in Vizag, at the KGH premises, demanding justice for those who will be left with no jobs. It is learned that as per the government orders, these people were given Covid-19 duties on a contract basis for a year and are to be removed after the contract ends.

It may be recalled that during the pandemic situation when there were thousands of cases being reported, government hospitals, such as KGH, deployed contract staff to balance the load on the medical staff. Now that the situation is slowly subsiding, and their contract has ended, the nurses and technicians were told not to attend duties anymore. The contract staff alleges that at the time of Covid-19 duties, many have been affected with Covid-19 but came back to work after recovering. With many of them completely depending on this job, they are asking the government to appoint them back as contract staff. Back in May 2021, medical student staff at KGH had also gone on a strike when a PG student from Andhra Medical College (AMC) had been attacked.