PARBAT: While the country is battling with the second wave of COVID-19, health workers at the District Hospital in Parbat have been fighting financial constraints as they have not been paid for nearly five months now.

A total of15 frontline health workers and staffers at the Parbat District Hospital have not been paid their 5 months’ remuneration.

The District Treasury Office in the district had blocked the bank account of the Parbat Hospital maintained at the Nepal Bank Limited, Parbat branch following the amendment in the modality of financial transaction in the government institutions.

The Office had asked the Hospital to open Treasury Single (TS) account after the enforcement of Government Transaction Directives-2076 BS which bars the government offices and institutions from conducting their transactions through the current account.

In the wake of an outbreak of the second wave of COVID-19, the frontline health workers in the Hospital have been working for long hours.

Dr DB Chettri, one of the doctors in the Hospital, shared, “We have been working relentlessly since the outbreak and spread of the second wave of COVID-19. But we have not been paid for five months now. It has increasingly been difficult for us to sustain.”

Since there was no permission granted by the District Treasury Office to run the TS account yet, the Hospital administration could not pay their staffers.

Rajesh Giri, one of the staffers at the Hospital, shared that the staffers were not paid since last January. The Hospital needs over Rs 700,000 a month to pay its staffers.

The Hospital is also facing problems in procuring medical supplies for the control of COVID-19 and the treatment of the infected ones while its bank account has been suspended, informed Hospital Management Committee Chairperson Govinda Pahadi.
RSS