Protest in Karachi ends after doctors assured of demands being met by August

Doctors boycotted OPD at Abbassi Shaheed Hospital, handed in resignations, demonstrated outside MS office

KARACHI: Doctors, post-graduates and house job officers at the Abbassi Shaheed Hospital staged a protest on Friday outside the medical superintendent's office against the non-payment of salaries. The doctors at the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC)-run hospital boycotted the out-patient department (OPDs), shouted slogans expressing their demands and held up banners and placards.

Reacting to the protest, the hospital administration issued a notification, terminating the services of 10 doctors. This led to other protesting doctors to hand in their resignations as well. Following this, negotiations took place between the hospital administration and the protesters. The doctors were assured their demands would be met by August 12 and they agreed to end their boycott and protest.

Young Doctors Association to boycott OPDs

The doctors said they ended their protests three months ago after receiving assurance from Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar that the issue would be resolved by April 1, 2019. They maintained that salaries for eight to ten months haven't been paid despite the mayor's assurances that pending salaries would be paid using the one plus one formula but this was upheld only for a couple of months. The one plus one formula meant that the doctors were told they would be paid twice their monthly salary each month - the month's salary and a previous month's salary - till the dues were cleared.

According to the protesters, the Sindh government passed a bill in 2019 which increased the salaries of house job officers and post-graduates.

As per the bill, the salary of a house job officer was increased to Rs45,000 from Rs30,000 and the salary of a postgraduate was increased to Rs75,000 from Rs65,000. The protesters claimed that this had not been implemented at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital yet. They said that the hospital administration's funds were increased but salaries remained the same.

Meanwhile, patients visiting OPDs were inconvenienced due to the doctors' boycott. The hospital administration issued a notification announcing the dismissal of 10 of the protesting doctors, including post-graduates Dr Amna, Dr Yumna, Dr Bushra and house job officers Dr Mukaramm, Dr Usama, Dr Bilal, Dr Zubair Khan, Dr Omar, Dr Saeed and Dr Haroon. This led to all protesting doctors handing in their resignations.

A delegation of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) Sindh chapter, headed by YDA Chairperson Dr Omar Sultan arrived at the hospital later on Friday and met with the protesters. They met with the hospital Director Abdul Jabbar Bhatti and after two hours of negotiations, the protesters were assured that the issue would be resolved by August 12.

Pakistan facing acute shortage of doctors

Bhatti assured that irregularities in the doctors' salaries would be resolved soon. They would be paid their pending salaries and the increase in salary promised by the recent bill, would also be enacted. Besides, the notification dismissing 10 of the protesting doctors was also withdrawn.

The protesters dispersed and resumed OPD services. They warned, however, that they would resume the protest if their demands are not met by August 12, 2019.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2019.