Collateral damage: Misery piling up for the patients, doctors promise more

JAC announces to shut down indoor wards if govt does not listen to them.

ISLAMABAD:

In his mid-forties, Gulsher is admitted in the surgical ward of Polyclinic Hospital, waiting for his abdomen to be re-stitched. However due to the ongoing strike of the doctors, that does not seem probable anytime soon. All the scheduled operations have been put on hold and Gulsher has little option but to wait in pain.

As hundreds of such patients suffer, the doctors are yet to reach a consensus on the reason for their standoff with the government. Health professionals and non-medical staff who opted for the Basic Pay Scale (BPS) structure are observing strike whereas those in favour of health personnel scale (HPS) are on duty in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims).

According to an official, all doctors are condemning the strike only technical and non-medical staff have boycott work.

Describing the situation at the Holy Family Hospital, he added that only few doctors and professors are on strike, the rest are the nurses, paramedics and non-medical staff.

While talking to The Express Tribune, Polyclinic Hospital Joint Executive Director Dr Anis Kausar said Gulsher suffered from post-surgery infection due to which his abdomen was opened. Now it needs to be stitched but due to the ongoing strike it has become difficult to make that happen.

The sad part is he is not alone in his misery. “One finds many such patients suffering in the cold. Women with their toddlers, diabetic patients and others being turned back,” she said.

Rashid Abbasi, 69, has a similar story to tell. He had come all the way from Murree to visit a cardiologist at Polyclinic Hospital as he was experiencing chest pain. He looked weak and pale and had covered himself with a torn blanket and the sole of one of his shoes was also broken. “I borrowed some money from a relative to come here and I’m being told it’s useless unless the strike ends,” he said.

While talking to The Express Tribune, a health professional in Pims who wished not to be named, said at one hand, patients are being asked to go back home on the other there is no sanitary staff to clean up the hospital.

The strike hours last from 8am to 2pm. After that, the sanitary staff is supposed to clean the hospital, especially critical areas like emergency. With a large turnover of patients, most of the doctors are doing the sanitary work when they also have to tend to the patients, he added.

“This is not acceptable, this means the doctors and their staff will paralyse the entire health system everytime the are slight unhappy over anything,” said Imtiaz, a patient who had come from Hazro.

Meanwhile, despite giving an ultimatum to have their demands fulfilled by Wednesday at 10am, the Joint Action Committee has still not gotten any response from the government. “This reflects government’s indifference towards resolving our issues. Yesterday, we gave a 72-hour ultimatum, if we get no response from the government, we will shut down the indoor wards of the hospital as well,” said Syed Manzar Naqvi spokesperson of the committee.

This ultimatum has created panic among the patients admitted in the wards, who are under treatment. They have come from far flung areas and have no clue what they will do if such situation will arise.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2012.