Health services at NICH remain suspended for second consecutive day

Karachi
The employees of National Institute of Child Health (NICH) Friday continued their protest against not receiving their health allowance while those at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) divided, causing a rift between staffers of the two major public health institutions.
The staff of NICH and JPMC, under the aegis of a Joint Action Committee formed by them, had launched a joint protest on Thursday against not receiving their health allowance. Due to a boycott of health services at both institutions a day earlier on Thursday, almost all health services had been suspended.
However, emergency departments and intensive care units had stayed open and functional.
Late Thursday night, the NICH employees decided to continue with the protest while most of the JPMC employees gave the benefit of the doubt to the senior government officials and chiefs of both institutions who had promised to take their demands forward with the relevant authorities and go back to work.
Hence on Friday, almost all health services including OPDs, laboratory services, administration, physiotherapy and other departments at the NICH remained suspended. On the other hand, employees of the JPMC largely refrained from protest and performed their duties as usual.
Hundreds of patients, who had come from far-flung areas of the city and remote areas in Sindh and Balochistan had to return from the NICH.
Meanwhile, the differences between employees of both hospitals worsened when the staff of NICH marched to JPMC when they heard that the hospital of Jinnah hospital was preventing doctors, nurses and paramedics from protesting.
However, JPMC’s executive director Prof Dr Anees Bhatti stopped the charged NICH workers from entering the hospital, leading to a scuffle between both factions of protesters.
However, a heavy contingent of anti-rioting police arrived and was able to prevent the scuffle from turning into a brawl.
The NICH employees kept protesting even though director Dr Jamal Raza had promised his full support for their demands and urged them to call off the boycott so patients could be treated. He advised them to tone down their protest and instead of boycotting work, wear black armbands and hoist black flags so patients do not have to suffer.
However, later, Dr Bhatti alleged that the charged NICH employees had manhandled him and had also tried to beat him up. He said the protesters also subjected him to verbal abuse.
He claimed that after Thursday’s protest, authorities had assured that all demands of the employees would be met and funds would allocated in the upcoming budget to provide due allowances to the employees but unruly elements of the NICH wanted to disturb the working environment at the hospital and cause inconvenience to patients.
Meanwhile, the JPMC administration hinted at lodging criminal cases against the NICH employees for subjecting Dr Bhatti to verbal and physical abuse. On the other hand, NICH employees leading the protest, Zaryab Tiwana and Aijaz Kaleri, denied the allegations.