Paramedics’ strike in SZH enters sixth day

LAHORE: Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) and Allied Health Organisation (AHO) of Shaikh Zayed Hospital have regretted lack of response from the government over administrative crisis with virtual closure of hospital on sixth consecutive day on Thursday.

“The senior faculty/heads of departments and paramedics of Shaikh Zayed Hospital have unanimously signed separate charge-sheets against the Chairman/Dean of the institution, which reflected the deep administrative, financial and healthcare crisis in the hospital,” said leaders of PMA and Allied Health Organisation while speaking at a press conference held here at a jam-packed auditorium of Kidney Centre on Thursday. The heads of departments have signed the second charge-sheet afresh last month after it had already shown no-confidence on the Chairman/Dean last year.

However, the senior faculty/heads of departments, the leaders of SZH chapter of Young Doctors Association (YDA) and those of nurses in the hospital were conspicuously missing on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, PMA, Lahore chapter President Prof Ajmal Hasan Naqvi said that the senior faculty was discharging duties in their departments, whereas some leaders of the YDA’s hospital chapter were compromised after getting certain favours from the Chairman as they were appointed Medical Officers (MOs) against merit.

Earlier, PMA leaders Dr Ajmal Hasan Naqvi and Dr Izhar Chaudhry, while declaring full support to Allied Health Organisation, have held Chairman/Dean responsible for all the ills in the hospital. “There is complete chaos as administrative and financial corruption is rampant in the hospital,” they alleged, while accusing the chairman of awarding jobs to his favourites.

They alleged that the chairman had secretly tried to declare the hospital a trust, which not just meant to destroy the institution but also hit the interest of the employees by converting their government jobs to trust employment.

However, AHO General Secretary Nasiruddin said, “We have succeeded to win the legal battle as Lahore High Court reversed the decision to convert the hospital into a
trust and also declared chairman’s appointment “illegal”. However, he said that the chairman filed a review appeal in the Supreme Court. He said that allied health professionals were forced to go on a strike in the hospital after the chairman’s men made an armed assault on Rana Karimuddin, Vice-President of AHO, for criticising the alleged anti-hospital and anti-patient policies of the chairman. He regretted that the police were reluctant to register an FIR against the chairman and his guards despite CCTV footage of the armed attack against the leaders of the Allied Health Organisation.

Although healthcare services are virtually on a standstill due to paramedics’ strike on sixth consecutive day in the hospital, he claimed it otherwise by saying that the healthcare services were continuing in Emergency Ward and indoor wards without any interruption except in the Out-Patients Department (OPD). Some of the visitors, however, belied his claim by saying that the patients were being forcefully discharged from different wards due to ongoing strike in the hospital.