Doctors protest PPE shortage, non-payment of salaries

Calling for enhanced security at hospitals, YDA warns of further demonstrations

HYDERABABD: Health workers in Hyderabad protested on Sunday the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other facilities at hospitals, as the rising number of Covid-19 cases continues to worsen the burden on the public healthcare system.

Gathered on the call of the Young Doctors Association (YDA), the protesters, who included doctors and paramedical staff, also demanded the provision of risk allowances and enhanced security at health facilities.

"Young doctors want to work as the frontline soldiers of the Sindh government during the pandemic, [and] the government shouldn't ignore us," a statement issued by the YDA following a meeting on Sunday read.

‘Doctors on frontline of Covid-19 battle’

It stated that if the doctors' demands remained unfulfilled, the YDA would stage protests outside the offices of medical superintendents of all government hospitals in the province. The statement further added that health workers should be provided risk allowance equal to their basic pay, as was being provided to their counterparts working in facilities run by the federal and Punjab governments.

According to the statement, "Doctors are being subjected to physical and mental torture as a consequence of [people's] offensive behaviour they face at workplaces and the government needs to bring in a law to bolster the security of healthcare facilities."

Besides, YDA members deplored the non-payment of salaries to postgraduate doctors in Sukkur and Larkana's public hospitals for the past 13 months.

Sindh to set up six infectious diseases hospitals

The association demanded an increase in the stipends for postgraduate doctors in the province from Rs65,000 to Rs75,000, the establishment of infectious diseases hospitals in all districts of Sindh, an increase in the number of ventilators in the province's hospitals, the issuance of promotion lists for Grade-17 and Grade-18 officers and the regularisation of doctors at the Trauma Centre, Karachi.

It also gave a call for another demonstration today.
Meanwhile, doctors and paramedics staging a protest at Ghulam Muhammad Mahar Medical College Hospital in Sukkur said they had repeatedly asked for the provision of PPE over the past 2 months but to no avail.

Similar protests were organised in Dadu, Naushero Feroze, Ghotki, Sanghar and other districts.