HYDERABAD, Oct 10: Patients suffered badly at the Civil Hospital Hyderabad here on Friday as the paramedics went on a strike in protest against the manhandling of two of their colleagues at the hands of a local activist of the Pakistan People’s Party.

The PPP activist, Amir Pathan, has been reportedly occupying a number of private rooms for the past six months and has also been accused of misbehaving with the paramedics and doctors at the health facility. He was admitted to the hospital for treatment some orthopaedic problem and despite having recovered from his illness, he was adamantly occupying some rooms of the hospital with his supporters who also claimed to be the activists of the PPP.

The hospital administration had made several attempts to get the rooms vacated but to no avail. However, the situation got ugly on Thursday when these political activists roughed up a sweeper, Anwar Masih, and a clerk, Saleem Khaskheli, over some petty issues in different incidents.

Responding strongly to the manhandling issue, paramedics observed a strike on Friday to protest against these activists and urged the relevant authorities to initiate stern action against the culprits. The strike rendered the out-patients department (OPD) of the hospital almost non-functional, where on an average around 8,000 patients visit on a daily basis. Due to the closure of the department, patients had to return without receiving any treatment.

The paramedics did not perform their duties except for casualty, intensive care unit and coronary care unit (CCU) given the fact that patients with serious ailments were admitted there.

They staged a sit-in in front of the Market police station. They also held a protest demonstration on the premises of the hospital and staged a sit-in in front of the office of the medical superintendent (MS) of the hospital Dr Jabbar Sheikh, who had recently been posted here from Karachi after the removal of Dr Manzoor Memon.

The protesting staff called for registration of an FIR against Amir Pathan and his associates and for their immediate ejection from the rooms they had been occupying illegally.

The general secretary of the Sindh Paramedical Staff Welfare Association, Abdul Lateef Otho, said that Amir Pathan and his associates had been illegally occupying six rooms of the hospital for the last six months.

“He is free to do whatever he likes and often mistreats doctors and paramedics,” he added.

He said that an FIR had been lodged with the Market police on the complaint of paramedics against him but he and other accused had not been arrested so far.

Mr Otho said that around 200 cases of gynaecology, 70 pertaining to ear, nose and throat and 110 other surgeries had to be postponed due to the paramedics’ strike, which would continue for two hours on Saturday if the culprits were not arrested. He said that doctors would also observe a strike to express solidarity with the paramedics.

The hospital’s administration had converted rooms in the upper storey into burns unit because the existing burns ward building had become dangerous and was posing threat to the staff, patients and attendants. However, eight rooms on the ground floor continued to serve as private rooms. But four of them were declared as isolation ward to take care of cases like dengue.

The remaining rooms have been illegally occupied by political activists, who according to sources in the hospital, are not sick or need any treatment.

“One of them was admitted several months back but after having recovered and discharged he was supposed to clear his payments but he didn’t do it”, said a source.

Similarly, Amir Pathan, who has been relieved of his party’s post continue to take undue advantage of his party affiliation to occupy private rooms.

The activists have almost defaced rooms’ structure by wall-chalking and pasting stickers and posters on the walls. All the rooms are air-conditioned and television sets are also installed there. The hospital administration doesn’t get any charges for their continued stay.

Sources said that Pathan enjoyed support of the local office-bearers of the PPP. He used to have a free access to the office of the former medical superintendent, Dr Manzoor Memon, but he always avoided entertaining him.

Interestingly, some of these activists have obtained personal keys to these rooms and in order to accommodate a deserving patient, the hospital administration and doctors have to make requests to them.

“I personally had to make a request to one of these activists to give keys to one ward,” said a former additional medical superintendent (general).

When contacted, an official at the Market police station told this scribe requesting anonymity that the area police had conducted a raid to get the rooms vacated from those unscrupulous elements but by the time the team reached there, they had fled the hospital.

He said that the hospital administration had also been advised to write to the DPO Hyderabad in this regard.

The medical superintendent, Dr Jabbar Sheikh; however, said that he had informed the health minister about the situation and some progress in this regard was expected soon.

Dr Shiekh hoped that the paramedics would call off their strike because he had backed their stance.

The AMS (general), who is in fact looking after all the hospital’s affairs, Ghulam Mustafa Abbasi, told Dawn that it had become a trend that rooms remained in occupation of activists and it had been going on since the tenures of the former medical superintendents, Dr Khalid Qureshi, and Dr Waseem Sheikh.

“The way these activists treat us is quite intolerable for us but still we discharge our responsibilities”, said Mr Abbasi.