Striking pharmacies shut, patients suffer

New Delhi: Scores of pharmacists in Delhi government hospitals, dispensaries and mohalla clinics in the city were on strike on Monday, affecting thousands of people.

The Pharmacist Empl-oyees Association (PEA), an organisation of working pharmacists under the Delhi government, was protesting against the “government’s failure” to create promotion cadre posts for pharmacists in service.

The association has also threatened to go on an indefinite strike if the government does not meet their demands, including increasing of staff strength. Many patients, visiting these hospitals and dispensaries, had a tough time on Monday.

Some postponed their medicine purchase while others bought them from private chemists at higher rates. Nearly 50,000 patients are treated in the 34 hospitals and several dispensaries, polyclinics, and mohalla clinics run by the Delhi government. “There isn’t any designation change for pharmacists working in the government sector.

So, we join as pharmacists, and unlike any other position, we retire as pharmacists too. In all the years of service, we never get recognised as a gazetted officer. In contrast, a person who joins as a peon can also work his way up to a gazetted post,” said Bhupendra Kumar, president of the Delhi Pharmacists Employees Association.

In October, when the government came up with a system of designations, the pharmacists’ associations protested saying that it was technically a demotion.

In the memorandum given to the state government, the association has said that all the dispensers are well qualified, but they earn very low salary compared to those in other states.

“The workload is higher than other hospitals as the patients turn-out is very high in government hospitals in the national capital territory,” it said.