Doctors, paramedics’ march on PM Secretariat thwarted

Several protesters fainted owing to dehydration, OPDs closure creates problem for patients

ISLAMABAD: The local administration and police on Thursday thwarted an attempt by doctors and paramedical staffs to march on the Prime Minister’s Secretariat against the freezing of health risk allowance.

As part of their ongoing protest against the finance division’s move, employees of the Polyclinic and the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences and CDA Hospital set off their march on the PM Secretariat at 10am while locking outpatient departments (OPDs).

The move kept the local administration including the police on their toes, which, as part of a preemptive measure, placed barriers in front of the Nadra office to stop them from moving ahead.

In the meantime, around four to six staffers fainted due to dehydration caused by the sweltering heat. The fainted staffers were rushed to the Polyclinic’s emergency.

Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Captain (retd) Mushtaq Ahmed also showed up to negotiate with the protesters and assured them that he would arrange their meeting with the finance division’s additional secretary within a week.

Meanwhile, OPDs of the Polyclinic, the Pims, the CDA Hospital and other hospitals remained closed for the whole day, creating trouble for a large number of patients visiting these facilities.

While talking to The Express Tribune, Joint Action Committee Secretary Dr Gul Mohammad said that they will continue to protest until their demands were met.

“If our issues are not heard within a week’s time, we will lock all hospitals in Islamabad and the government will be responsible if any untoward situation occurs,” he said.

He said that the freezing of their health risk allowance was a clear infringement on their fundamental and basic rights.

“The finance division should revisit its decision and restore our health risk allowance as soon as possible,” he demanded.

Dr Muhammad said that doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff put their life at risk to treat patients suffering from various deadly and communicable diseases and come across dangerous radiations while performing different medical tests.

On 7 July, the finance division issued a notification which said that employees of federal hospitals will not get their annual health risk allowances with their basic pay from June 30, 2015.

Rawalpindi protest

Meanwhile doctors from three major public hospitals in Rawalpindi also staged a protest on Benazir Bhutto Road on Thursday.

They demanded pay raise, audit copy of 1,100 PGT seats, stoppage of privatisation of public hospitals, dental cadre issue, free hostels
for doctors and resolution of all the issues related to Pakistan Medical and Dental Council.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2015.