Patients and their relatives who are planning to visit the two most significant public hospitals of Karachi from different parts of the city as well as from other districts of Sindh and Balochistan are likely to suffer because the outpatients departments (OPDs) of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) would remain closed for two hours tomorrow (Monday).
Professors, doctors, nurses and paramedics, who recently launched a series of protests with the help of hospital administrations against decentralisation of the JPMC and the NICH, have announced observing a two-hour strike tomorrow.
Around 5,000 patients who visit the 25 OPDs of the JPMC every day and around 700 minors who are brought to the OPDs of the NICH would have to suffer because of the strike.
Sources said that the two-hour token strike would be observed in the morning and further protests might be announced later.
“It’s not a strike, but only a protest against the JPMC’s devolution from federal to provincial level. However, we shall try to ensure that patients do not suffer,” JPMC’s Dr Seemin Jamali said over the telephone.
When asked if the protest was against the Constitution after the 18th Amendment, Jamali said, “No, it’s consistent with our Constitution, which clearly states that federal institutions cannot be devolved to provincial level.”
She said that not only the JPMC, but the OPDs of the NICH and the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) would also remain closed in protest.
However, NICVD Director Khan Shahzaman said, “We are not going to close our OPDs and we are not a part of this strike, as we are an autonomous body and there is no question about NICVD’s devolution.”
When NICH Director Prof Dr Jamal Raza was contacted for his thoughts on infants and other minors suffering due to closing the OPD of the NICH, the director refused to issue any statement.
Ameer Shah of the Joint Action Committee of Doctors, Nurses and Paramedics, which is associated with the JPMC, said that after decentralisation, the doctors of other provinces would be unable to work at the JPMC, which is why the doctors are protesting against devolution.
