ALLAHABAD: Patient care was partially affected at two government hospitals of the district -- T B Sapru (Beli) hospital and District Women (Duffrin) hospital -- on Saturday. This was after the outsourced staff members abstained from working to mark their protest against probable discontinuation of their services Both these hospitals of the city have hired a number of staff members, including nurses, ward boys, technicians and even doctors from an outsourced agency. As the contract of this agency would be ending in March, it has to be renewed by the government. Of these two, Beli alone has hired around 70 such staff members.However, in apprehension that the contract would not be renewed and as their services would not be required by the hospital, large number of the staff members decided to abstained from work.At Beli hospital, large number of outsourced staff members staged a road blockade at the main Stanley road during the peak traffic hours on Saturday. The agitated para-medical staff members were seen on the road wearing black stripe on their shoulders.“As there is shortage of staff, the government has entered into a contract with an outsourcing agency, contract of which would be ending by the end of this month and these staff members were protesting in apprehension that the contract of their agency would not be renewed," said Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Prayagraj, Dr G S Bajpayee.Chief medical superintendent (CMS), TB Sapru hospital, Dr Niti Srivastava said, “Although these hired staff members abstained from work, daily services continued at the hospital without much hindrance, however when such a large number of staff (around 70) is missing from work at the same time, there has to be some problem at section concerned”. She added that the government has not yet taken any decision for discontinuing the services of this agency but still they protested.However, because of the protest on the road, traffic movement at the busy road was badly affected for around half an hour. It was only after the police intervention that the protesting decided to end their protest. They later met the DM, Bhanu Chand Goswami who has assured them of finding an amicable solution.

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