No end to patients’ suffering as doctors continue to boycott OPDs in Sindh

The protesters have warned of shutting down emergency and ICU wards if demands not met

KARACHI: The young doctors' protest against the Sindh government entered its second day as patients bore the brunt of the non-availability of services at out-patient departments (OPDs) in public hospitals across the province.

The doctors boycotted OPDs as well as operation theatres for the second time in the last couple of months, warning that they would shut down the emergency and ICU wards too if their demands were not met.

The demands

The doctors have been demanding salaries and allowances, equal to their counterparts in Punjab. They also want promotions, regularisation of contractual doctors and an end to rampant corruption in the health department.



The joint action committee, which represents different associations of doctors, boycotted the hospitals for three days last month, compelling the provincial health minister and secretary to take them to the negotiating table.

On January 30, the doctors withdrew their call for the boycott after a meeting with the health authorities which assured them that their demands would be accepted. The government had reportedly agreed to promote 2,000 to 2,500 doctors to the higher grades starting from BS-18 to BS-20.

But the Sindh government had failed to deliver on the promise, prompting the doctors to call for a strike again. This time, the doctors only gave the government a day to issue the notification for increase in salaries before boycotting their duties.



Patients suffer

The OPDs and operation theatres at the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Lyari General Hospital, National Institute of Child Health and other public hospitals across the province turned away thousands of patients due to the non-availability of doctors.

Surgeries scheduled for the day also had to be postponed. Meanwhile, patients who had come to Karachi from remote areas pleaded to the hospital staff for medical assistance. There was, however, none forthcoming.

One family, who was accompanying a patient in the emergency ward of JPMC, claimed they had brought the patient to the hospital the previous night, but had to wait two-and-a-half hours before a doctor attended them. The patient passed away in the morning. "Precious lives are being lost but the doctors refuse to budge from their protest," one of the family members complained.



On the other hand, the protesting doctors stressed they would keep the OPDs and operation theatres closed till their demands were met. They also warned to shut the emergency and ICU wards and encircle the Chief Minister House if their demands were not met.

Politicking

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders, MPA Khurrum Sher Zaman and MNA Aftab Siddiqi reached JPMC to take stock of the situation.

Addressing the media after meeting a delegation of the protesting doctors, Sher Zaman said that the doctors had been forced to boycott, due to the negligence of the health department. "The Government of Sindh's negligence has ruined the health department," he said, adding that the plague of typhoid was spreading due to the government's negligence. "Sindh has suffered the most after the 18th Amendment. Education, health and every other sector has been ruined," he said. 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2019.