Polyclinic doctors call off strike

Sethi assures them their demands will be met in five days.

ISLAMABAD:

Young doctors from Polyclinic Hospital called off their strike on Wednesday.

Young Doctors Association (YDA) Joint Secretary Polyclinic wing, Dr Aftab Afzal, said they had called off the strike after getting complete assurance from Federal Health Secretary Nargis Sethi that their demands will be met. They are asking for increased salaries, revised service structure and regularisation of doctors on contracts.

“We have been given a time frame of five days from the ministry. If they fail to fulfil our demands within the given time, then we will restart our strike,” Dr Afzal said.

Doctors from Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) had ended their strike on Tuesday. When asked why the doctors from Polyclinic not end their strike with Pims, Dr Afzal said YDA Pims had excluded YDA Polyclinic from their meeting with Sethi.

A symbolic protest in Polyclinic started on March 9 when doctors in the hospital started wearing black armbands. They went on a token strike from March 16. When the government continued to ignore their demands, they decided to completely shut down the outpatients departments in the hospital and took to the roads.

Meanwhile, YDA Rawalpindi continued their strike. Talking to The Express Tribune, Media Spokesperson YDA Rawalpindi, Waleed Abbasi, said the Punjab Government instead of resolving the issues, were threatening them.

“We are being told that our registration will be cancelled and we would not get jobs anywhere,” he said.

Abbasi said that even though the government tried to replace them with fresh recruits, even they have stopped coming to the hospitals.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2011.