25 January,2012 07:35 AM IST | | Priyanka Vora
The electronic system Sevarth was installed at St George Hospital in October last year, after which employees of the accounts department failed to electronically transfer salaries to the accounts of the caregivers
For the last two months, over 35 nurses working for St George hospital have been walking around with empty pockets, and ironically, they have to thank the employees of the hospital's accounts department for their situation.
Technologically challenged? Officers working at the accounts
department claimed that they are new to the system, and most of the
people working in the department are not computer-savvy.
Representation Pic
Since October last year, the hospital's accounts department has been struggling to learn the ropes of using the new software -- Sevarth -- to electronically transfer salaries of employees to their respective bank accounts.
The agitated nurses -- rendered paupers after not being paid salaries -- have even made presentations before the superintendent's office, but in vain. The hospital staff would earlier be paid by cheques, and it appears that the accountants are not equipped with sufficient technological know-how to operate the installed software.
"We are finding it difficult to run our household, not having been paid for two months. Many of us have loans to repay. Delay of a few days is acceptable, but not for two months," said a nurse.
Officialspeak
An official from the accounts department said, "The software was installed in October. Most of the nurses who haven't got their salaries are those who were transferred recently, making it impossible for us to update their accounts on the software. We are new to this system and most of the people here are not computer-savvy. It will take time for us to get used to this e-system."
After the nurses protested the non-payment, the hospital authorities assured them that they would be paid their salaries through the earlier manual methods. This assurance too, did not translate into action.
The Other Side
Dr D R Kulkarni, superintendent of the hospital, said, "I have been personally following the problem and we are resolving it. The software is new, and we should give the employees some time to get acquainted with it. A majority of the nurses who haven't received the salaries are newly transferred and thus the software is not accepting their salary requests. We have already processed the salary of 32 nurses, and they will receive it soon."
