Demanding roll back: Paramedics protest freezing of health-risk allowance

Federal hospitals staff’s protest enters second day.

ISLAMABAD:

Over 200 paramedical staff belonging to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), Polyclinic Hospital, Capital Development Authority Hospital, National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine (NIRM) and the Federal General Hospital Chak Shehzad protested against freezing of health allowance at China Chowk on Wednesday.

The protest was organised by a joint action committee (JAC) of the hospitals’ employees.

The Finance Division had issued a notice on July 7 under which employees of the federal hospitals stopped receiving health-risk allowance from July 30.

A protesting employee of the NRIM said despite repeated protests against the decision there had been no response so far from the Finance Division or any other relevant department.

“We have been wearing black armbands at work for a month and from today onwards we’ve decided to stop working for two hours daily until the decision is reversed,” said a protester on condition of anonymity.

University status for PIMS

Meanwhile, over 50 employees of Pims staged a protest against giving the institute university status. The Pims was made Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) through a bill passed on March 23, 2013.

JAC President Manzar Abbas Naqvi said the hospital was established as a gift from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) for the welfare of the general public of Islamabad, but the government has turned the hospital into a money-making entity.

“SZABMU was allotted a location at the premises of the National Institute of Health but the university continues to operate at Pims,” he said.

Naqvi said the hospital should remain under the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD). He said that now the SZABMU was functioning as an autonomous institute independent of the CADD which he claimed had affected the services of the employees.

“Patients are being charged more than what they used to pay for the same medical services, whereas those who were entitled to various provisions as federal government employees are not being entertained anymore since we are working under an autonomous body [the university administration] now”, Naqvi said.

CADD continued to approve the budget for Pims but technically “Pims” does not exist, he shared, adding that “This has caused difficulties for the employees when it comes to official procedures.”

SZABMU Vice-Chancellor Prof Javed Akram told The Express Tribune that he failed to understand the motive behind the protests as employees were given a choice to continue working under the CADD.

He said the university was only an academic body and it had been aligned with the hospital to facilitate some 20,000 students. “Perhaps, the protesters are apprehensive about the strict performance criteria under the tenure track system that came into effect with the new bill,” he said.

“As for freezing of medical allowance, a discussion has started in the Senate since yesterday (Tuesday) to consider taking back the decision,” he stated further.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2015.