Hyderabad: The health department on Wednesday refuted reports claiming that outsourcing employees of the Dr Marri Channa Reddy Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (Dr MCR TIMS), Sanathnagar, had staged a protest.Officials clarified that the employees seen protesting were associated with construction firm Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited (MEIL), which is executing the TIMS project, and were wrongly identified as TIMS staff.“The issue was between Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) and its sanitation agency, STAR, that has now been resolved. STAR agency owner Prasad apologised to the management of the TIMS over the issue and assured that the pending salaries of the agency’s employees would be paid within the next two days,” said a health official, clarifying that Dr MCR TIMS does not use the services of STAR Sanitation Agency. The agency’s services were engaged by MEIL (MEGHA)./Earlier in the day, officials refuted reports and social media posts linked the protest to employees of the newly established super-speciality hospital.“MEIL has been executing the Sanathnagar TIMS project, while the health department is responsible for operationalising the hospital and arranging its medical and non-medical workforce,” the official added.OP services to start todayThe 1,082-bed TIMS, named after former chief minister Dr Marri Chenna Reddy, was inaugurated on Monday and is planned as a major tertiary-care facility. While the out-patient (OP) services will commence from Thursday, the in-patient (IP) services will begin from Friday, said the officials.“Since thousands of people visited the hospital during its inauguration and before, the hospital management is sterilizing all the operation theaters and wards once again,” said the official, adding that the hospital services would be expanded in phases, with the health department separately undertaking the recruitment of medical and non-medical personnel.
