The Young Doctors Association (YDA) and the Young Nurses Association (YNA) Sindh denounced on Monday, the Centre's decision to takeover control of three hospitals in Karachi. The protesting doctors and nurses maintained that the Federal Medical Teaching Institutes Ordinance 2020 - under which the institutions have been listed by the Centre - would create hurdles for the healthcare community and make it difficult for low-income citizens to avail services.
The federal ministry of national health services issued a notification on January 7, 2021, stating that Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) and the National Institute of Pediatric Health (NICH) are to be handed over to the federal government under the above mentioned ordinance.
In a statement on Monday, YDA Chairperson Dr Umar Sultan maintained that the recently enacted ordinance is tantamount to privatisation of government hospitals. He claimed that implementation of the new law would deprive citizens of free of cost medical treatment and require patients to pay the charges for OPD, labs, X-Rays and other health facilities.
He further contended that the recently promulgated ordinance would contradict the existing law pertaining to services structure for government employees. In 2019, the Centre had taken over and then handed back the control of the city's three major public hospitals amid much hue and cry from the provincial government and the medical fraternity.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 12th, 2021.
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