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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Doctors’ strike to continue today as talks fail

By Our Correspondent
February 16, 2019

Young doctors in Sindh announced that they would continue their boycott of the out-patient departments (OPDs), operation theatres and wards at the public hospitals on Saturday (today) after their talks with the provincial health department regarding the issuance of a notification to increase their salaries failed again on Friday.

Meanwhile, patients from Karachi to Kashmore continued to suffer for the third consecutive day as doctors did not discharge their responsibilities at the public health facilities in the province, including the major hospitals, basic health units and dispensaries.

“Today we met Sindh Health Secretary Saeed Awan once again but unfortunately he didn’t appear to be serious in resolving our issues. Neither did he show us any summary moved to the chief minister nor did he give us any time frame for the acceptance of our demands. In these circumstances, we have been left with no other option but to continue our boycott on Saturday too,” Dr Kamal Dev, an office bearer of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) Sindh told The News.

Thousands of patients were denied health services by the young doctors on Friday, the third consecutive day since Wednesday, as the doctors continued their strike to press the authorities to accept their demands, which include announcing an increase in their salaries and allowances to bring them on a par with Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Emergency departments of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), National Institute of Child Health, Dr Ruth KM Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi and several other government-run facilities remained overcrowded with patients as their OPDs were boycotted by the young doctors. Hundreds of patients were referred to private hospitals where they had to pay high charges for receiving medical advice or treatment.

A large number of patients who had come to the public hospitals in Karachi from far-flung areas and outskirts of the city, and other districts of Sindh and Balochistan had been staying on the footpaths and pavements inside and outside the hospitals since as early as Wednesday in the hope that the doctors’ strike would end. However, many of them returned to their homes as doctors announced that they would continue their strike.

“Our parents have spent hundreds of thousands of rupees on our education and waited for years so that we could help them financially at a time when inflation is skyrocketing. Lawmakers increase their perks and privileges whenever they like but they are not ready to give us any financial relief,” Dr Amna Khan, a young doctor protesting at the JPMC, said.

‘No govt assurance’

“The Sindh health secretary didn’t even ask us to end our strike or give us any time frame or assurance, and instead warned us of departmental action if we continued our protest. This attitude would not help anybody. We would continue with our boycott of health services as we are under immense pressure from our colleagues in the entire Sindh,” Dr Mehboob Noonari, a YDA Sindh office bearer commented.

According to him, it seemed that the government was not serious in resolving the issue as on the one hand, the health secretary had been claiming that the summary regarding the pay increase of doctors would be taken up by the Sindh cabinet in its next meeting while on the other hand the government was not giving any time frame to accept the doctors’ demands.

“If the government cannot give us any assurance and time frame, how could we end our boycott? They are threatening us with dire consequences but we want to make it clear to them that threats would not help them and the patients,” Dr Noonari maintained.