HECC President said that they were not satisfied with the recommendation sent by KTH chief executive because they were sent only to secretary health and not to the CM.
Followed by strikes at Lady Reading Hospital and Khyber Teaching Hospital (KHT), the Health Employees Coordination Council (HECC) held a third strike at Hayatabad Medical Complex on Thursday.
The protesting employees including doctors, nurses and paramedics boycotted all treatment services except the Emergency and Accident (E & A) department.
Meanwhile, the patients visiting for all other treatment facilities were turned away.
The health employees are demanding to rescind the Essential Services Act, provision of proper service structure and increase in professional health allowance and withdrawing the decision of converting the building of Postgraduate Paramedics Institute into Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical College.
On Wednesday, the protesting employees held a meeting with the administration of KHT headed by Chief Executive Dr Umer Ayub who forwarded their seven demands to CM, provincial health minister and health secretary to solve the problems through negotiations.
“Despite being on strike for the last two days, our demands have still not been met. We are holding a sit-in in front of the Provincial Assembly on February 19 and will be there till our demands are met,” HECC General Secretary Johar Ali told the participants.
HECC President Dr Musa Kalim told The Express Tribune that they were not satisfied with the recommendation sent by KTH chief executive because they were sent only to secretary health and not to the CM.
“We have the same annual budget as the health employees in Punjab but the treatment facilities over there are totally different. The patients in Punjab are given regular meals and all the treatment facilities are free-of-cost,” he said. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the government is charging a huge amount in this regard so we are trying to change the system, Kalim added.
He further said that they want to take up the demands with the CM Amir Haider Khan Hoti since nobody else can solve their problems. He added that if their demands were not met by Monday, they would hold a sit-in in front of the Provincial Assembly.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 15th, 2013.
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