Salary delay triggers strike by health workers at Gurgaon Civil Hospital

Gurgaon: Around 550 outsourced health department employees at Civil Hospital went on strike over non-payment of salaries, disrupting services on Thursday. As a result, the hospital administration was forced to make alternative arrangements for patient registration and other essential services.

The strike led to chaos at the hospital as patient registration counters remained shut for nearly two hours. The situation was further compounded by a brief power disruption at the hospital, reportedly linked to the ongoing strike by electricity department employees. Electricity supply remained affected for around 15 to 20 minutes and it took nearly 20 minutes to activate backup generators after the outage.

The workers — including sweepers, data entry operators and Class IV employees — stopped work around 8am, alleging that their salaries for the month had not been credited despite assurances that the payment would be released on Thursday.

“We did not receive our salary on Wednesday and were told it would be credited. Even today it has not been credited. We are on strike and cannot return to work until the issue is resolved,” said Yogesh, one of the protesting workers.

With hundreds of patients arriving for treatment, long queues formed at the registration area before chief medical officer Lokveer Singh intervened around 9am and directed interns to handle registrations and restore services. “The issue is almost resolved. I went there and talked to people who were staging a protest. At present, the situation is under control,” said Singh.

The disruptions left many patients and attendants struggling to access services. Rajesh Kumar, who had come from Jharsa for a consultation, said he had been waiting for over an hour as registration counters remained closed. “Nobody was telling us when the counters would reopen. There was confusion and long queues everywhere,” he said.

Soni Devi, who accompanied an elderly family member to the hospital, said the power outage added to the anxiety. “For some time, fans and lights were not working properly and people were worried about how long the situation would continue. Patients should not have to suffer because of strikes,” she said.

For a short period, patients and hospital staff faced inconvenience as hospital authorities worked to restore normal operations through alternative arrangements. Officials said no major incident was reported and essential services were maintained.

Doctors said the administration managed the situation by deploying available manpower and activating contingency measures. Power supply was restored through backup systems, and registration work resumed after interns were pressed into service.

The twin disruptions highlighted the vulnerability of critical public health facilities to labour unrest and delays in support services, particularly in a high-footfall govt hospital catering to patients from Gurgaon and adjoining areas.