Islamabad:Taking stern notice of the continuing strike at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has expressed concern over the inordinate delay in notification of the new service structure for health personnel and has directed Cabinet Secretary Nargis Sethi to ensure that it is implemented and notified at the earliest.
The young doctors of PIMS, who have been on strike for the last 18 days, are hoping that some concrete measures will now be taken in the next couple of days to resolve the deepening crisis. It may be recalled that on Wednesday, the Young Doctors Association (YDA) had served a 48-hour ultimatum to the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) for resolution of the crisis resulting from delay in notification of their salary raise and service structure, and had threatened to embark on a full-fledged strike leading to withdrawal of medical services from all critical areas including emergency, as well as intensive and coronary care, if their demands were not implemented within the given deadline.
Just when the doctors were on the verge of expanding the scope of their strike on Friday, the YDA went into a meeting with Nargis Sethi, who assured them that all promises which Prime Minister Gilani had made regarding their service structure and salary raise would be announced in the next couple of days. She assured them that the PM would honour, within the next couple of days, the commitment that he had made on the floor of the Parliament. Acting on her assurance, the young doctors decided not to withdraw emergency and critical care services, as planned. However, despite the PM’s intervention, they have decided to continue boycott of all OPDs till an official notification is actually issued.
“We are thankful to the prime minister and to the cabinet secretary for taking the matter seriously,” YDA’s President Dr. Sajid Abbasi stated after the association’s meeting with Nargis Sethi. Dr. Sajid was optimistic that the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) would return the relevant file with its comments by today (Saturday) and that the final notification would be issued, latest by Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, the situation at PIMS continued to deteriorate because aside from young doctors, the non-medical staff of PIMS also went on strike. Interestingly, both the parties were pitched against each other. The situation was brought under control following a meeting between the hospital administration and representatives of YDA, the non-medical staff and some faculty members. Better sense finally prevailed, with all stakeholders agreeing on the need to work together in harmony.The news.
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