Doctors, nurses and paramedics continued their protests against the discontinuation of the Covid-19 health risk allowance for the fourth day on Friday, boycotting the outpatient departments (OPDs) in all government hospitals.
The protests across the province have left thousands of low-income patients who turn to government hospitals for free medical care in distress.
Meanwhile, health workers will be boycotting all OPDs and other departments, with the exception of the emergency and the Covid-19 wards at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, today (Saturday) in protest.
In Karachi, the protesters led by the Grand Health Alliance (GHA) gathered outside Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, rallying for their demands. The police had an altercation with the protesters as they attempted to disperse them.
The protesting health staff then gathered outside the hospital’s administrative block and condemned the police’s behaviour.
Young Doctors Association Sindh president Dr Omer Sultan claimed that Saddar SHO Ashraf Afridi bullied and abused the protesters who were peacefully calling for their demands.
“The protesters don’t want those visiting the hospitals to suffer,” said Dr Sultan, holding the provincial health minister responsible for the government’s failure to resolve the issue. “The protests will end as soon as matters are resolved.”
GHA leaders later held a meeting at JPMC and decided to continue the protest. The protesting health staff will suspend operations in OPDs of all government hospitals with the exception of JPMC, where they will boycott all departments apart from the emergency and coronavirus isolation wards.
The meeting also demanded a judicial inquiry against SHO Afridi.
The GHA, which consists of the Pakistan Medical Association, the Young Doctors Association and nurses and paramedical associations, has been protesting this week demanding permanent health risk allowance.
Other demands include increase of house rent allowance to 45% of the basic pay; payment of health professional allowance and stipends for postgraduate and house job doctors; implementation on the hospitals' security bill; and health insurance.
The alliance has also called for regularising contractual doctors, resolving the transfers and promotions issue at JPMC and National Institute of Child Health, installing CT scan and MRI machines in all tertiary care hospitals and filling vacant posts of nurses and paramedics. Besides, they have called for payment of salaries of nurses working in isolation wards and regularisation of those nurses, and the restoration of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and revocation of the Pakistan Medical Commission.
The health risk allowance was added to doctors' pay in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The Sindh government withdrew the allowance earlier this month, citing a drop in Covid-19 cases in the province.
"Considering the weakening severity of coronavirus pandemic ... allowance granted to the health personnel of Sindh health department is hereby discontinued with effect from October 1," reads the October 9 notification.
"We have been requesting the Sindh government to restore the risk allowance and accept our other demands. But if the government keeps ignoring us, we will take the protest to the next level," warned Dr Pir Manzoor Ali, the Pakistan Medical Association’s Sindh president, at a demonstration outside the Hyderabad Press Club.
"The threat of COVID-19 isn't over. We hear top government officials tell us daily that a smart lockdown is on the cards," said YDA’s Dr Faiza Hussain Memon, who also spoke at the Hyderabad protest. “The health and lives of doctors are still at risk but the provincial government is denying this fact.”
Public sector doctors in Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Sanghar, Badin and other districts of Sindh are also observing the OPD boycott at government hospitals.
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