Karachi:The strike by the doctors and the paramedical staff at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) entered second day on Tuesday.
They were on strike against the proposed devolution of both the health institutions to the provincial government.
The strike affected the functioning of the outpatient departments, surgeries and other health services at the two institutions at the expense of a large number of patients, especially women and children.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that the new federal health minister, Riaz Pirzada, spoke with the JPMC director, Tasneem Ahsan, by phone on Tuesday and asked her to persuade the protesting doctors and paramedics to end their strike.
The minister reportedly told the JPMC director that he was going to take up the issue of devolution of the JPMC and the NICH at a meeting of the implementation commission on Wednesday and the doctors and paramedics should continue performing their duties until then.
Some 55 scheduled surgeries were cancelled on Tuesday while patients coming from all over Sindh, and from some areas of Balochistan, were not catered to by the doctors and paramedical staff.
The staff at the laboratories also took part in the strike and medical tests including ultrasounds, blood and other body fluid examinations, MRIs, CT scans and other related tests could not be held, causing immense agony and hardships to the visiting patients.
The patients had to go to some private hospitals and other public hospitals in the city as only emergency departments of both the hospitals remained open.
The doctors representing the Young Doctors Association (YDA) of Sindh, who were also on the strike at the OPDs in favour of their own demands, however, attended some patients outside the JPMC at their protest camp.
Hundreds of children with gastric ailments and other problems brought at the NICH were also sent back after doctors at the institute of child health refused to see them in the OPDs and only emergency cases were provided with necessary treatment.
The surgeons at the NICH, however, didn’t boycott the elective surgeries and carried out operations, providing some relief to the children requiring immediate surgeries.
The Joint Action Committee of doctors and paramedics of the JPMC and the NICH announced to continue their strike on Wednesday, saying that until they got a clear message from the authorities that their hospitals would not be handed over to the provincial government, they would continue their protest.
Dr Salman of the JPMC, who represented the JAC, told The News that they were protesting for the last two weeks against the proposed devolution of the JPMC and the NICH under the 18th Amendment, but nobody paid any heed to their demands until they resorted to a complete strike.
“I admit that patients had to suffer as doctors were not willing to attend them except for emergencies, but we had no other option left except resorting to a complete strike and closure of the OPDs,” he said.
“Only the emergencies at the JPMC and the NICH remained functional as we didn’t want anybody to lose their life due to our strike,” Dr Salman added.
Dr Salman confirmed that the implementation commission of the 18th Constitutional Amendment was meeting on Wednesday, and they had been assured by the federal health minister that the issue of devolution would be at the top of the meeting’s agenda.
Ironically, the administrations of both the JPMC and the NICH remained indifferent to the problems of thousands of patients who came not only from Karachi and other parts of Sindh but also from Balochistan.
None of the officials from the JPMC and the NICH was available for their comments on what measures were being taken to ease the problems of the visiting patients.The news Patients wait forever as doctors’ strike goes on
doctors strike, Patients wait treatments, National Institute of Child Health, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, JPMC, NICH,
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