KARACHI: Doctors and paramedics of three major public sector hospitals on Friday staged a protest demonstration against a possibility of handing over their management to the private sector despite the outright denial of any such move by a senior official.

The three city hospitals — Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) and National Institute of Child Health (NICH) — had been devolved from the federal government to the Sindh government some four years ago under the 18th constitutional amendment.

On a call of a joint action committee comprising employees of the three hospitals, the protesters shut the emergency and outpatient departments and marched on Rafiquee Shaheed Road. Hospital officials said the protest caused suspension of several operations and tests at laboratories.

The marchers blocked traffic on one of the busiest arteries of the city, prompting a police action. The protesters were baton-charged as law enforcers came into action to get the road vacated in order to ease traffic congestion in the surrounding areas of Saddar.

Office-bearers of the joint committee said a case against the devolution of the three hospitals had already been pending before a court. But they were worried as uncertainty prevailed about control of the hospitals, they said. While it was yet to be decided whether the federal or provincial government was the controlling authority, what worried the hospital employees most are the reports about the handing over the facilities to the private sector.

“We have been working in these hospitals for years and past records amply show that employees of any facility given away to the private sector never had any future,” said Zaryab Tiwana, a representative of the protesting employees.

He said they had launched their protest two weeks ago in a soft manner but the government continued to ignore them. He said they were compelled to adopt the harsh measure as they had not been heard by the relevant authorities.

However, he said the protest had been suspended till Monday as the Sindh health department had invited them to negotiate the issue on that day. They would resume their protest if any satisfactory solution was not offered by the government then, he added.

Dr Khalid Shaikh, special secretary of the health department, said the government was considering handing over of only those facilities to the private sector which were not functioning satisfactorily.

He said he had not yet seen any proposal for the JPMC, NICVD and NICH, which were major teaching hospitals and were functioning properly.

He asked the employees not to protest at the cost of common people’s health and expressed the hope that the issue would be amicably resolved after the Monday meeting.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2014