Demand for higher salaries: Doctors at Parliament House join strike

Doctors at Polyclinic Hospital-run dispensary in Parliament House started a two-hour daily token strike.

ISLAMABAD:

Doctors at the Polyclinic Hospital-run dispensary in Parliament House have also started observing a token strike.

They have started with a two-hour daily token strike from 11am to 1pm and will go on a complete strike once their colleagues at Polyclinic start providing outpatient department (OPD) services in camps being set up in Argentina Park.

Muhammad Ajmal, the president of Young Doctors Association (YDA) Polyclinic, said on Friday that their preparations were almost complete and they will start offering OPD services in the park in a “couple of days”. The dispensary doctors will provide OPD services in the halls of Parliament House during the Polyclinic Hospital strike.

Pims doctors set to boycott OPDs

Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences doctors, meanwhile, are all set to go on a complete boycott of the general OPD, children OPD, mother and child health OPD and the burn centre OPD from 8am to 2pm from Saturday.

On the fifth day of their token strike from 11am to 1pm they all gathered in front of the administration block and raised slogans, demanding revised salary and service structures. Postgraduate doctors, medical officers and faculty members joined them in their protest.

They also blocked the road in front of Pims emergency ward for half an hour, causing a traffic jam.

The emergency services, critical areas and operation theatres services, however, remained functional.

Dr Sajid Abbasi, president YDA Islamabad chapter, said the ministry of health’s attitude towards their demands has forced them to come out on the streets.  “We will not step back from our demands no matter how long we have to fight for it,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2011.