KARACHI, Jan 3: While postgraduate doctors at the JPMC have decided to call off their strike from Saturday, patients at the various wards continued to suffer.
Dr Irfan Sattar of the Postgraduates’ Action Committee told Dawn on Friday that the decision would be taken in a general body meeting which would be attended by the postgraduate doctors on Saturday morning. He added that the decision had already been taken on Thursday but it had not been communicated to all the postgraduate doctors which was why most of them had stayed away from work on Thursday and Friday.
He said that the postgraduate doctors had met the director of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and other senior professors at around 1pm on Thursday. “The director assured us that he would arrange our meeting with the federal health minister. Later in the day, we called on the federal health minister, who said that within three weeks a stipend would be instituted. A committee was also formed which decided to pursue the matter on a weekly basis.”
A spokesman for the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre said that if the postgraduate doctors continued to be on strike in spite of the assurance given by the federal health minister, that a stipend would soon be instituted, the hospital might take administrative action against them.
“The postgraduate doctors work with a hospital in an arrangement which is known as clinical attachment. They are not employees of a hospital. The director or medical superintendent of a hospital can rusticate them without prior notice,” he said.
The spokesman explained that the postgraduate doctors studying for MCPS had to work at a hospital for two years and those studying for FCPS had to work with a hospital for three to four years. “If the postgraduate doctors try to create a law and order situation despite the many assurances given by the federal health secretary, the JPMC can take administrative action against them,” he said.
He said that the reason why work at the JPMC had not been adversely affected by the strike of the postgraduate doctors on Friday was that the hospital had made special arrangements, asking all the resident medical officers to show up for work. Besides, he added, the workload had not been enormous because of Friday which was a half day.
The postgraduate doctors went on strike on Wednesday demanding a monthly salary along with arrears following an altercation with the federal health secretary, Ejaz Rahim, at the certificate- distribution ceremony at the College of Nursing. Mr Rahim had declined to speak to the postgraduate doctors saying that he had already taken the administrative steps, requesting the government to institute a stipend for the postgraduate doctors.
Representatives of the Postgraduates’ Action Committee claimed that in provinces other than Sindh the postgraduate doctors received a monthly stipend.
Last week, the Postgraduates’ Action Committee had staged a demonstration in front of the office of the director of the JPMC.
