Successful negotiations: Strike at JPMC OPDs called off

Health secretary has addressed doctors' concerns and assured them resolution of issues

KARACHI: Postgraduates and house officers serving at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) have called off their strike after discussing their issues with health secretary Saeed Ahmed Mangnejo during a meeting at his office on Monday, confirmed chairperson of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) Dr Omer Sultan.

YDA members had been boycotting their duties at the hospital's out-patients departments (OPD) from Friday, protesting against non-payment of their salaries.



The YDA house officers' in-charge, Dr Khalil Khatri, told The Express Tribune, "The health secretary had called a meeting at 2pm on Monday and assured the YDA cabinet [that he would] resolve all their pending issues." Khatri said the secretary has assured them that the salaries of federal seat holders would be released by Tuesday and house officers working on SMC seats will receive their salaries in a week. The secretary also assured that the seats of Jinnah Sindh Medical University will be raised from 250 to 350 in a month.

"We will make a summary and send it to the chief minister for approval," said the health secretary in response to demand for higher salaries for doctors.

We will follow up on the progress of the summary during the meeting on February 25 and if the required progress has not been achieved we will call for another strike, explained Sultan. He said that they had currently called off the strike as the patients were suffering and said the doctors would attend the OPDs from tomorrow.

Others present during the meeting included JPMC director Dr Anees Bhatti, deputy director Dr Muhammad Suleman and YDA cabinet members.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th,  2016.