Sheikh Zayed Hospital strike paralyses medical services

Thousands of patients coming from far-flung areas have to suffer, as the strike announced by medical professionals at the city’s prime health facility Sheikh Zayed Hospital enters the ninth day today (Wednesday), Pakistan Today has learnt.
The Young Doctors Association (YDA), along with paramedical staff and nurses, have shut the outdoor and indoor patient departments and demand a notification of revised service structure and increased pay scales as was promised by the federal government. Sheikh Zayed hospital is one of the few hospitals across the country, which were still under control of the federal government despite devolution of the health ministry to provinces after the 18th Constitutional Amendment. After a strike of YDA, doctors from other provinces also demanded an increase in salaries of doctors. After the strike, the federal government constituted a committee to revise the health professional service structure and pay scales of post-graduate doctors, nurses and paramedics.
The committee’s proposal, in form of a memorandum, were distributed among hospital employees of the federal government hospitals across the country on May 31 and the memorandum said that the new service structure will be reflected in the upcoming budget. All employees were asked to sign that they were willing to work under the new service structure, while all doctors, nurses and paramedics signed the performa and submitted it. But the federal government has yet to issue a notification for salary raise and revised service structure, causing a lot of resentment amongst doctors.
A delegation of doctors met former federal health secretary Nargis Sethi on Monday to resolve the matter but she again assured medical professionals that a notification will be issued before Eid. YDA Sheikh Zayed Hospital Chairman Dr Qamar, who was also present in the meeting, told Pakistan Today that it was a positive sign from Sethi who assured them again that the government was willing to meet doctors’ demands. He said the strike will continue because all stakeholders demand something “concrete” because even earlier the government had promised the same.
Resentment among doctors multiplied because of the fact that the Punjab government and other provinces issued increased salaries for medical professionals as promised in the budget. A doctor from Sheikh Zayed Hospital, seeking anonymity, said, “The federal government does not seem to be taking the matter seriously that is why it has been so many days but in vain. Presently, a young doctor at Sheikh Zayed Hospital was getting Rs 22,000 while his colleagues at Jinnah Hospital get more than Rs 40,000 as the Punjab government has fulfilled its promise. This has caused a lot of resentment among doctors. Even doctors in PIMS and Holy Family Hospital are also on a strike.”
This has become a double-edged sword, another senior doctor said, because patients suffer on the one hand and the hospital on the other.
“Sheikh Zayed Hospital is famous for kidney, liver and diabetic treatment and people from across the country visit the hospital for getting treatment. It has been more than a week that the OPD and indoor patient services have been withdrawn and only the emergency is working. Patients are suffering but hospital is also facing a monitory loss which is a lot. The government should take heed and resolve the matter,” the doctor added.
Habib Ahmed, whose father is a liver patient, said, “My father is 74 and has severe liver problem. We cannot afford private treatment. Besides Sheikh Zayed Hospital has the only liver transplant facility in the country but despite so many days we have not been able to see a doctor as the OPD is not working.”