A video clip that went viral in Kashmir was that of staff in the sole maternity hospital pestering an attendant with redundant pleas for tips in lieu of doing the duty against which the staffers at the hospitals get paid a hefty salary. It is in public knowledge that the hospital staff at this hospital has an incurable knack of asking for tips especially if the child born is a male child. This tip is usually asked through different ways, using different tones, sometimes by invoking God’s blessings or wrath. There is a whole script at play at this hospital and the staff feel empowered that they can resort to any sort of misbehavior when it comes to asking for tips.
This video reel only made this menace come in the limelight of social media. All this was prevalent at the hospital for many years. Now that a video has gone viral the hospital authorities have installed more cameras. The hospital authorities have told the social media user that he/she should have approached the hospital authorities before making the video viral. The hospital authorities in a press statement have adopted a tone of blaming the victim in this case for defaming the hospital administration. How on earth is that defamation? Is not it the job of hospital authorities to monitor each security camera? The hospital authorities need to monitor the ‘extra-curricular’ activities of their staff through these cameras on a regular basis.
By terminating a few employees, the hospital can send the right authorities. The ‘chai’ culture in our hospitals has no place. We are very sure that this incident must have saddened our Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha who has launched a crusade against corruption. Only the other day a Naib Tehsildar was caught red-handed while accepting corruption. We are hopeful that LG Manoj Sinha must have taken a serious note of this incident and strict action will follow. All we are saying is that there should be multiple channels of communication between an aggrieved attendant and hospital administration – it can be a landline number, a WhatsApp number, a Facebook inbox message or a tag on Twitter. Why resort to only age-old modes of communication in this digital era?
The heads must roll and the erring employee of the hospital in this case must face the law with a great force so that it can set an example in compliance for other employees of the hospital.
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