Strike at public hospitals ends as govt, young doctors reach agreement

By M. Waqar Bhatti
February 18, 2019

The Sindh government finally managed to convince the young doctors on strike to end their boycott of health services at the public hospitals in the province from Monday (today) after Sindh Information Adviser Murtaza Wahab and Health Secretary Saeed Awan gave written assurances to the doctors that their demands would be met.

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The government representatives had successful talks with the Young Doctors Association (YDA) and Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) on Sunday night after which the doctors agreed to end their strike.

“Our talks with the PMA and YDA have completed successfully and they [protesting doctors] have announced to end their boycott of health services from tomorrow [Monday, February 18, 2019] and all their doctors would resume their duties from now onwards,” Wahab said after the talks that were held at his residence in Karachi.

The information adviser said a summary based on demands of the young doctors had been approved by the CM and it would be placed on the agenda for the cabinet meeting to be held in the coming week. He added that once the cabinet approved the summary, the government would start the implementation.

Wahab played an important role in the successful resolution of the issue which had been causing immense suffering to patients and attendants at the public hospitals since last Wednesday when the young doctors went on their second strike of the year, demanding an increase in their salaries and allowances.

YDA leaders, Dr Umer Sultan, Dr Yaseen Umrani, Dr Mehboob Nonari and Dr Kamal Dev, and PMA Sindh President Pir Manzoor met Wahab and Awan. They expressed satisfaction over the outcome of the meeting, saying that they were happy as interests of all the stakeholders, including doctors, patients and the government, had been protected.

This was the second meeting in two days hosted by Wahab at his residence to resolve the issue. The earlier meeting was not successful as the protesting doctors demanded a written assurance from the government, which was not granted then.

During the meeting on Sunday, the provincial government assured the YDA in writing that the salary package of government doctors in Sindh would be brought on a par with the salary package of doctors in Punjab from February 1, 2019, subject to approval from the provincial cabinet. The YDA on their part announced that they were ending their boycott of out-patient departments, operation theatres and wards at the public hospitals.

The YDA and PMA representatives thanked the information adviser and health secretary for taking personal interest in resolving the doctors and patients’ issue. They said their colleagues would resume their responsibilities at the health facilities on Monday and expressed hope that the Sindh cabinet would approve the summary signed by the CM regarding an increase in their salaries and allowances.

A notification regarding the pay increase will be issued after the approval of the summary by the Sindh cabinet, reads the agreement signed by the government representatives and doctors’ leadership.

The agreement further reads that in case of any increase in the salaries of doctors in Punjab, an increment of similar amount would be provided to the medical officers, house officers and postgraduates in Sindh.

The parties also agreed that all issues in the future would be resolved through negotiations so that patients did not suffer.The five-day strike was an ordeal for the patients and their attendants as they were not provided medical services at the OPDs and operation theatres. Frustrated due to the prolonged strike, the attendants resorted to their own protests especially on Saturday.

As two children being treated at the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) died, a large number of attendants attacked the doctors on strike at the NICH and took their protest camp apart. The patients’ attendants also briefly blocked Rafiqui Shaheed Road in protest. However, the NICH administration and doctors claimed that both the children were being treated at the hospital and they died during the treatment due to complications of their diseases.

As police and private security guards were called to deal with the protesting attendants, they walked out of the hospital and blocked Rafiqui Shaheed Road where four major hospitals of the city are located, including the NICH, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) and Kidney Centre.

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