Doctors in Karachi, Hyderabad and Nawabshah announced on Monday that they will go on strikefrom Tuesday after talks with health ministry officials broke down, while Balochistan physicians endorsed the demands of Punjab doctors and said they would also go on strike if their demands were not met.
Junior doctors working in out-patient departments in Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC), National Institute of Child Health (NICH) and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) said they would join the strike.
The Young Doctors Association (YDA), which called the strike in Punjab as well, insisted that their agenda was being misconstrued and the authorities were trying to malign them.
Dr Abbas Ali Shah, a member of the YDA, said that they were working on a two-pronged strategy: firstly, they want to show support for their colleagues in Punjab, who are being treated very harshly by the provincial government over there, and they want uniform pay-and-perk packages across the country.
He says the gap in federal and provincial pay-scales was too wide: postgraduate doctors get Rs22,500 at the federal level, while doctors with similar educational background earn just Rs12,000 at the provincial level.
JPMC’s joint executive director Dr Seemin Jamali said that media should not give much credence to the young doctors, “They are just a bunch of troublemakers.”
YDA members say the out-patient departmentss in JPMC and NICH will remain closed for an hour from Tuesday. They have also called a press conference on the kerb outside the hospital.
Jamali asserted that the protesting doctors : “Let me make one thing very clear, in case patient care is hampered in any way, the law will take its course.”
PMA stance
The Karachi chapter of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) disowned the protesting doctors, saying they did not back strikes which affect patients’ welfare. PMA Karachi Spokesperson Dr Samrina Hashmi said that the YDA had not contacted the PMA or communicated their demands.
“Shutting down clinics or OPDs is not the way to go about pressing for their demands.” She said if contacted the PMA would see if they should support their agenda, but insisted that her association would not support such protests.
Protest in Balochistan
In Quetta, the Balochistan chapter of the Young Doctors Association threatened to go on strike to mount pressure on the provincial government for the acceptance of their demands.
Kamal Mandokhel, Ayathullah Kakar and Asif Baloch of the YDA-Balochistan said they did not want to create problems for anyone, but would resort to a token protest by staging rallies and demonstrations in the coming days.
“We support the demands of our colleagues in other provinces and call upon the Balochistan government to
Published in The Express Tribune, April 5th, 2011.
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