Closure order miffs Medica employees, ruckus for dues settlement

Jamshedpur: In a big blow to the health infrastructure in the city, one of the major private hospitals of the city Medica Hospital has announced closure of its Jamshedpur unit. The chairman of the hospital has asked the employees to choose between the options of joining either Kolkata or Shillong units. However, most of the employees are unwilling to shift elsewhere.

Miffed at the short shrift given by the hospital management, the employees of the hospital created a furore on the hospital campus Thursday morning.

Medica Hospital was started in Jamshedpur in 2014 by Kantilal Memorial Trust and Tata Steel.

The then chief minister of Jharkhand, Raghuvar Das, had inaugurated the hospital in 2014.

However, soon after the new government took over the reins of power, the hospital came under fire and started facing allegations of violation of the lease terms and commercial usage of the trust land in breach of the trust terms.

A probe was also ordered into the violation of terms and conditions.

Reeling under multi-pronged problems and allegations of misdoings, the hospital management finally decided to shut down Jamshedpur unit.

Sources say that vendors have big dues pending payment.

Meanwhile, employees are clamouring for settlement too.

Hospital sources said that the management will pay the vendors’ dues only after the settlement of employees’ dues is completed.

The closure of a hospital in the city is likely to cause more pressure on the remaining health infrastructure. TMH, especially, is likely to come under increased pressure due to increase in number of patients.

It is still not clear what the fate of the exiting health care infrastructure in the hospital would be and whether the hospital will be run by the Trust as it was done before the arrangement with Medica or not.