Alarmed by the rising TB cases among its employees and labourers at the TB Hospital in Sewri, the BMC has decided to relax the condition for availing a special TB leave for them. The hospital employees can now avail this special leave without exhausting their other leaves.
Presently, if a civic employee contracts TB, the BMC offers a special TB leave, but only after exhausting all their other permitted paid leaves. However, this condition will now be slackened for Sewri TB Hospital employees and they can avail the special TB leave even if other leaves are pending.
“It has been observed that the percentage of hospital employees/labourers, including doctors and nurses, contracting the TB disease is more as compared to common people. While attending to the TB patients, they remain in constant touch with them, risking the possibility of getting infected with the disease,” said a senior health official.
According to civic officials, though the BMC offers a special TB leave, the employees at the TB hospital even after contracting disease do not avail it so that their paid leaves remain intact. Due to this, the disease spreads between them, also leading to a strong possibility of infecting other people.
“Hence, according to the Revised National TB Control Programme, a special TB leave will be offered to the TB hospital employees, who are infected with TB, even if they have not exhausted their paid leaves. They can now avail the special TB leave directly,” the official said.
For this, the BMC has decided to form a medical committee of a medical superintendent, a chief medical officer and two honorary lung disease experts. This committee will assess the spread of disease in the TB-infected employee and accordingly, recommend the special TB leave for an employee. However, the employee should regularly submit certificates that his TB tests and treatment is underway every month.