Young doctors’ strike continues for third consecutive day

Young doctors including postgraduate trainees and house officers of the Civil Hospital Karachi continued their boycott of OPDs and elective surgeries for the third consecutive day on Friday demanding a raise in their salaries.

They warned that they would be compelled to boycott all health services if their demands were not met by the authorities.

The doctors demanded that their salaries should be disbursed as per the revised stipend announced in a government notification. They said their colleagues at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center and the National Institute of Child Health were being paid Rs65,000 while those serving at CHK and other hospitals in the province were being paid 42,500 for the same job even though they possessed the same qualification, which was an injustice to them.

“Today we gathered outside the CHK medical superintendent’s office in the morning, boycotted the OPDs and marched towards the Dow University Health Sciences where we staged a sit-in,” CHK Young Doctors’ Association president Dr Waris Jakherani told The News.

“We are determined and unless we get solid assurance that we would be given our rights, we will continue protesting,” he added.

Many surgeries and procedures were postponed at the CHK on Friday too and other public hospitals in the province because of the postgraduate trainees’ boycott.

Because of their boycott, patients were referred to other hospitals including the JPMC and the NICH by the CHK administration.

The DUHS and CHK administrations said they were helpless and had to turn away visitors because of the young doctors’ strike.

The protesting doctors said they would wait till Monday and if their demands were not met by then, they were going to boycott all departments and healthcare services at the province’s hospitals.

Even the doctors at the JPMC and the NICH  who are being paid revised stipends vowed to join their protesting colleagues at the CHK and other cities of Sindh.

“We won’t hesitate in boycotting health services and joining the CHK doctors’ protest if their demands are not met by Tuesday. When we were protesting, they supported us and now it’s our turn to reciprocate, YDA Sindh president Dr Samiullah Gill, a postgraduate trainee at the JPMC, told The News.