Doctors stage symbolic strike across Sindh

KARACHI: Doctors at public hospitals in Sindh held a symbolic strike on Tuesday and performed their duties with black bands tied around their arms, in protest of the non-availability of safety kits and salary cuts.

The strike was called by the Sindh chapter of the Young Doctors Association.

Speaking on the matter, YDA Sindh chapter president Dr Yaseen Imrani demanded of the Sindh government to provide personal protective equipment to doctors and other hospital staff, screening all healthcare professionals at all of Sindh’s hospitals for the coronavirus, move and set up isolation and quarantine facilities outside the premises of tertiary care hospitals, establish an institute of infectious diseases in all districts of the province, withdraw cuts in doctors’ salaries and announce a risk allowance for healthcare professionals treating coronavirus patients.

Dr Yaseen also called for clearing the dues- accumulated over the past 13 months- of doctors working at Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University, Larkana as well as of doctors in Sukkur.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd, 2020.