Abbasi Shaheed Hospital doctors demand security

Doctors associated with the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital on Wednesday staged a protest outside the head office of Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) against poor security arrangements at their health facility.

On March 19, a group of drunken miscreants entered the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital at around 3 and hurled threats at women doctors and harassed them by filming them on their mobile phones without their permission.

The incident revealed that there are no closed circuit television cameras in the wards of the largest hospital managed by the KMC. In the Pediatric ICU, doctors have installed CCTV cameras on a self-help basis. Absence of CCTV cameras in the hospital has raised security concerns among the staff as miscreants misbehave with women doctors with impunity.

It is not the first time the doctors are protesting. They had earlier staged a protest and blocked the door of the KMC building.

The protesting doctors who carried placards in favour of their demands moved to MA Jinnah Road which disrupted the flow of traffic and triggered a logjam. Several ambulances were also stuck in the snarl. After seeing people in distress, the doctors called off their protest.

They marched back to the KMC building's gate where officials held out an assurance that their demands would be met.

The doctors have been boycotting the OPDs at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for the last 10 days. "It is not just security there are many other problems at the hospital. There are no medicines, while water and gas supply is also erratic," said a protesting doctor. "Patient only gets a doctor and a bed. All the remaining expenses have to be borne by their families."

They said that the boycott of OPDs would continue till foolproof security was guaranteed at the hospital.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30^th, 2023.