Patients suffer as govt hospital nurses go on strike

Nurses stage sit-in outside KPC demanding promotions and allowances at par

with those of their colleagues in other provinces

Hundreds of patients at Karachi’s major public hospitals had to suffer on Tuesday as the nurses there boycotted work and staged a demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club demanding their time-scale promotions and payment of allowances similar to those paid to their colleagues in other provinces.

The protesting nurses included those working at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, the National Institute of Child Health, the Civil Hospital Karachi and the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.

Doctors had to carry out task including injecting drugs, dressing wounds, and taking samples for laboratory services themselves following the nurses’ boycott.

Hundreds of patients were turned back from the hospitals and asked to return later. Cases of patients in a serious condition including injured ones were dealt by doctors and nursing aides themselves.

Outside the KPC, nurses and their leaders under the banner of the Joint Nurses Action Committee held a protest demonstration on Tuesday morning and chanted slogans for their demands.

The nurses said they would continue their protest until the provincial health department would accept their demands and give them their time-scale promotions and allowances.

Some representatives of the nursing staff including their leader Aijaz Kaleri held a token hunger strike outside the KPC.

“During a press conference at the KPC last week, we had conveyed all our demands to provincial health department. We had warned that if our demands were not met, we would be compelled to boycott work and stage a sit-in outside the KPC,” Kaleri told The News.

Besides time-scale promotions and health and risk allowances, the nurses also demanded salaries and stipends at par with those of their colleagues in other provinces. They said the stipend of nursing students should be increased to Rs20,000 as was the case in other provinces of the country.

The provincial health department sent additional secretary health (technical) Aslam Pechuho to negotiate with the protesting nurses but they refused to talk to him and demanded speaking directly to health secretary Dr Fazlullah Pechuho.

The health secretary said the boycott and protest of the nurses was illegal, immoral and against the rules of public service. He added that nobody had approached the health department before going on a strike and staging a sit-in.

“The protest staged by the nurses is illegal and their demands can’t be met in this manner. They will have to talk to the authorities and present their demands in a proper manner instead of taking to the streets,” he added. “Nobody has the right to cause inconvenience to patients.”

Dr Fazlullah Pechuho maintained that in the past representatives of doctors and paramedics had met with him and presented their demands in a written form and negotiated with the authorities before taking such extreme steps. “But in this case, no representatives of the nurses came to me and presented their demands.”

He said the authorities would not bow down to the nurses’ blackmailing and pressure tactics.

Additional secretary health (technical) Aslam Pechuho, who went to talk to the protesting nurses, also criticised the nurses for endangering the lives of patients at the hospitals.

The representatives of the nursing staff were present outside the KPC by the time this report was filed. However, many nurses returned saying they would resume their protest outside the KPC on Wednesday morning.

“Tomorrow [Wednesday] we will march t the Chief Minister’s House to present him our demands because the health department, the health secretary and the health minister are not wiling to listen to us and address our issues,” said Gulnaz, a protesting nurse.