JPMC paramedics boycott OPD for two hours

Karachi
The protesting paramedical staff of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre boycotted the out-patient department for two hours on Saturday and stopped doctors from attending to patients. The paramedics were protesting against the non-payment of their health, deputation and other allowances for the last several years.
Hundreds of patients suffered as the paramedical staff also boycotted the pharmacy, the radiology section, laboratories and operation theaters.
They paramedics also staged a rally inside the hospital to draw the attention of the authorities to their plight and compel them to pay their outstanding dues.
The protest was organised under the banner of the Employees’ Action Committee of the JPMC.
The paramedics said they would boycott the OPD for two hours again on Monday (tomorrow) and vowed to completely shut down services at the hospital in the coming days if their demands were not met.
Speaking on the occasion, their leaders Haji Gul Syed Khan, Abdul Wahid, Aijaz Abbass and Dr Asad Malik said paramedics had been kept deprived of their health and deputation allowances for many years but these benefits were being given to other health employees.
They said they had used all peaceful and legal remedies to force the authorities to accept their just demands but the JPMC and its employees were being treated as second-rate citizens.
The paramedics also demanded that new recruitments should take place and the discriminatory attitude towards them be stopped.