The health clinics of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) are supposed to remain open between 8.30am and 3pm and the vector control workers are supposed to be in the field between 9am and 2pm, deputy mayor Atin Ghosh said on Thursday after a councillor pointed out that employees of the department were not working full-time.
Ghosh, who also heads the health department of the KMC, said the employees were supposed to arrive by 8am and leave only at 4pm. The additional time is spent on doing internal office work like sending reports or updating records on digital platforms.
Several Kolkatans echoed the councillor. They said that even during the peak of Covid, vaccination did not start in many clinics before 10am or noon, while people were asked to queue up from 8am.
In many places, the clinics close their doors by 2 or 2.30pm, citing the excuse that patient numbers were very low in the last two hours.
The 144 health clinics of the KMC treated over 16 lakh patients in the year 2020-21. In 2019-20, the year before the pandemic hit, the clinics had treated about 29 lakh people.
In the clinics, people can see a doctor and undergo basic blood tests like TC, DC and ESR, creatinine and blood sugar levels.
The clinics primarily cater to people belonging to low-income groups. But during the pandemic, people from the middle-income group have also thronged the clinics that administered Covid vaccines for free. Besides, the clinics also conducted Covid tests for free.
Many Kolkatans have in the past alleged that vector control workers rarely visited their homes or neighbourhoods to destroy mosquito breeding grounds though the KMC always claims that the workers visit every place once in seven days.
The KMC had claimed many times in the last two years that its field workers had visited homes several times to check if people had been vaccinated or not or if someone had skipped the second dose. The aim was to nudge the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated to get fully vaccinated. But several Kolkatans said no one from the KMC had ever visited their homes when the survey was being done.
“All employees of the health department are supposed to be on duty between 8am and 4pm. Vector control workers are supposed to be on the field between 8am and 2pm,” Ghosh said.
Ghosh was speaking after Rajesh Kumar Sinha, the councillor of Ward 25 in Jorasanko who also belongs to the Trinamul Congress, said that many workers were manipulating the attendance register and not working full hours. Sinha said that many employees arrived at 9am and or later and suggested a biometric attendance system to ensure timely arrival.
“I would request all councillors to visit the health clinics in the wards by 8.30 am and 8.45am on some days and see if employees have arrived or not,” Ghosh said.
The only those who are employed under the 100 days employment guarantee scheme are supposed to work for six hours — between 8am and 2pm. All other employees of the department are supposed to work for eight hours — between 8am and 4pm, he added.