KARACHI: Patients, especially poor ones coming from far-flung areas of the city, had to suffer a lot of trouble on Monday as the medical fraternity in most health facilities of the city went on strike in protest against the killing of doctors in the city.

The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) had given a strike call only for the city but it was also observed in other parts of the province and Quetta as a mark of solidarity with the community.

Five doctors have been killed this year in the city, where 17 doctors were slain last year.

The protest against the killings was widely observed in the city; outpatient departments (OPDs) were completely shut in all public sector hospitals of the city on Monday though their emergency sections operated as usual. Most privately owned health facilities, for instance the Liaquat National Hospital, followed suit in solidarity with the protesters.

Patients suffered the most at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), where OPD services had been suspended for the past eight days.

“I can’t sit, lie down, cough or even properly breathe because of an acute pain in the right side of my back. No specialist doctor has been available at the hospital for three days while those at the emergency section have given me some injections, but I haven’t got any relief,” said Karam Ellahi, an old man, sitting on a bench in the hospital.

He had come from Abbottabad to Karachi for work and was employed as a watchman in the Defence Housing Authority. “These days I’m jobless and forced to stay at the hospital as I’m penniless. I’m making ends meet here on borrowed money,” he said.

Ali Asghar with multiple health issues had come to the hospital from Larkana on Sunday night with his father, wife, four daughters and a son. “I couldn’t leave them behind as there was no one to look after them there. But I couldn’t get any treatment today since there was a complete strike at the hospital,” he told Dawn.

There were many patients like Ali Asghar and Karam Ellahi moving about in the hospital in pain and confusion, but there was no one to help them.

Sources at the JPMC said the paramedics had been on a ‘token strike’ against the non-payment of allowances by the Sindh government.

“The JPMC has been in a bad shape since its devolution. The Sindh government has paid perks to its own health department employees but is not paying the same to the staff, which is now its responsibility after the devolution,” a senior doctor said.

He said while the ‘token strike’ was observed for only two hours (9am to 11am daily), these were the most crucial hours for patients reporting at public sector hospitals.

When contacted, joint executive director of the JPMC Seemin Jamali regretted that poor patients were suffering badly due to the on-going strike and that the administration had conveyed the grievances of the paramedics to high officials.

“More than 5,000 patients report at the OPD daily. So, you can imagine that the number of patients being affected by the strike. We must not make poor patients suffer for our own cause,” she said, adding that Sindh government officials that included the health minister and health secretary had showed willingness to address the issue but had asked for time to find a solution.

According to Dr Jamali, Monday’s complete strike aggravated misery of poor patients, many of whom reported to the JPMC emergency section. Between 1,200 and 1,500 patients reported at the JPMC only in the morning hours, she said.

Govt indifference

Meanwhile, doctors from across the city gathered in large numbers at the PMA House late in the afternoon and held a meeting and prayed for the doctors slain in Karachi.

The daughter of the late Dr Irfanuddin Qureshi, who worked as an MLO at the Qatar government hospital and was killed in October 2013, also spoke at the meeting.

“She told the gathering about the financial hardship the family has been facing since the murder of her father. There was no financial help from the government. Even the family began receiving pension after a year,” said Dr Qaiser Sajjad, representing the PMA, adding that 57 doctors had been killed in the city from 2010 to 2015.

According to him, it was actually government indifference that forced the medical fraternity to go on strike, which, he said, was called 13 days back.

“We hoped that the government would accept our four demands, which all were very fair given the dangerous circumstances the medical fraternity was forced to work in. But nothing moved the government,” he said.

The demands of the medical fraternity, he explained, were that the government provided compensation to victim families, allowed the doctors to carry licensed weapons, improved prosecution and held trials of murder cases involving doctors either in military courts or ensured speedy trials in civilian courts.

“We have given two weeks to the government to address our concerns. If nothing positive emerges, we will go on two-day strike,” he said.

Representatives of the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association, Private Hospital and Clinic Association, Medical Aid Committee and a number of medical societies were present.

The Aga Khan University’s healthcare professionals also joined the larger healthcare fraternity across the country, in a show of solidarity, raising its voice against the targeted killing of physicians. The protest, however, did not affect the hospital operations, including clinics, which continued as normal, according to an AKUH spokesperson.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2015

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