Lab at Byculla Hospital remains shut for third day

The pathology laboratory of Masina Hospital in Byculla continued to be shut on Saturday inconveniencing patients for the third consecutive day.

The pathology laboratory of Masina Hospital in Byculla continued to be shut on Saturday inconveniencing patients for the third consecutive day.

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The hospital authorities had shut down the lab and suspended its entire staff on Thursday following a protest against privatisation of facilities. The hospital decided to privatise its laboratory and hand over the management to Super Religare Laboratories (SRL) in June.

“In our agreement, we were very clear that the original staff will be retained. But our employees were instigated and they started protesting against the privatisation. They would not let the new head of department sign reports or accept collection of bottles for testing,” said Dr Rohinton Dastur, medical director, Masina Hospital. The technicians continued their protest on Saturday.

The hospital first suspended the laboratory in-charge, Sultana Naik, last month, followed by eight laboratory technicians on August 2 pending an inquiry. “We are against the privatisation of the laboratory. The laboratory technicians have been suspended. We will protest till the matter is resolved,” said Anil Loklikar, member, staff union at the hospital.