Outpatient departments or walk-in clinics (OPDs) and operation theatres at government-run hospitals were boycotted by two groups of protesting doctors in Sindh on Monday.
A strike called by the joint action committee of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), and the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) against the proposed decentralisation of these hospitals continued on the 14th consecutive day.
The committee started the boycott from 7 am and closed down the operation theatres as a result of which scheduled procedures were cancelled. However, doctors did tend to emergencies. The doctors also boycotted the laboratories and the radiology departments.
The president of the joint action committee, Dr Muhammad Suleman, demanded that the proposal to decentralise these hospitals and hand them over to the Sindh government be withdrawn altogether.
During the protest, action committee chairman Dr Jawaid Jamali, co-chairman Dr Sameer Quraishi and senior vice president Ameer Husain Shah spoke to the federal health minister on the telephone. He assured them that their demands would be met. They warned that if the demands were not met, they would close Jinnah hospital, except for its emergency department.
Young doctors
Simultaneously, the Young Doctors Association (YDA) boycotted OPD duties at JPMC, Karachi, and Civil Hospital, Hyderabad, forcing scores of patients to turn back. Sindh Young Doctors Association (SYDA) Hyderabad president Dr Murad Qureshi told The Express Tribune that doctors will go on an all-out strike if their demands were not accepted in five days. “So far, our strike has been limited to the OPD but we will resort to boycotting the hospital wards as well.”
He said the SYDA was assured in a meeting with Sindh government officials that a notification accepting their demands would be issued soon. “SYDA’s Abbas Ali Shah led a delegation of doctors that met Senator Raza Rabbani, health minister Saghir Ahmed and Murad Ali Shah in Karachi on April 22. They were assured that the notification would be issued in 15 days.”
Abbas Shah said that although they are protesting peacefully for salary increments, a service structure and increased security at OPDs and emergency wards they support the proposed decentralisation of hospitals.
Civil hospital OPD shut down from Wednesday
From Wednesday, the out patients department (OPD) at Civil Hospital, Karachi (CHK) will shut down. After waiting for the Sindh government to respond to their demands for one week, doctors announced that they will go on strike until their 11 demands, including raises in pay and security, are met.
The YDA gave the government a week to agree on a uniform pay policy so that they are paid the same as the doctors in the Punjab. We haven’t heard from them yet and we have waited long enough, said YDA head at CHK, Dr Ambreen Ahmed.
Doctors are regularly beaten by attendants but the police or Rangers used to be deputed, but the doctors said they did not help. “After a few days, the same situations arise and we are left at the mercy of these people,” said Ambereen. At times, nurses do not feel safe to go to other wards.
“There have been incessant complaints but we are pacified and continue to work. But why continue a job where we do not feel safe.”
Apart from the emergency department, the OPD will not function from Wednesday onwards.
with additional input from PPI
Published in The Express Tribune, May 17th, 2011.
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