LARKANA: More than 30 patients died in different wards during and because of three days of strike by paramedics at the Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH) and its affiliated healthcare facilities, claimed CMCH Medical Superintendent Dr Inayatullah Kandhro.

Sources said on Sunday that MS stated in a letter to the district and session judge dated May 23 that the patients died mostly because of non-compliance of doctors’ directives about patients and removal of keys of oxygen cylinders and disappearance of medicines from stores.

As a result, the serious and critical patients admitted to the hospital could not get oxygen and medicines in time which exacerbated their condition. The strike on May 16 was sudden and without any justification, he said.

He claimed the strikers vandalized costly machines, snapped hospitals’ internal electricity connections and snatched away oxygen cylinders and keys from the staff concerned during the strike.

They were led by Shahi Khan Jagirani, Zulfikar Sahito, Khalid Jatoi, Aijaz Chandio, Fazal Mohammad Memon, Allah Nawaz Mangan, Mazhar Ali Chandio and Qamaruddin Shaikh, said the letter.

He said the paramedics could have raised voice for their demands in a peaceful manner, starting with token strike and then complete strike but they started it suddenly and forced all staff to follow them.

The MS had attached with the letter notices he had issued the paramedical staff during the strike and also sent a copy of the letter to judicial magistrate-III for action.

He cited an order of the Larkana circuit bench of the Sindh High Court and said that doctors and paramedics could not go on strike because they had to provide healthcare services to patients to save their lives. Necessary action should be taken against the persons involved in unlawful activities against patients, he said.

The MS letter is currently lying with the judiciary which is vetting it before initiating action on its contents.

The paramedical staff union which began its boycott on May 16 called off the strike on the fourth day. They were demanding the Sindh government post a grade-20 officer as MS.

The letter said that ‘unlawful’ strike and forcible closure of OPDs’ obstructed the process of general public’s right to healthcare and caused serious harm to the lives of thousands of people.

The paramedic association president Shahi Khan Jagirani and general secretary Zulfikar Sahito who appeared in the court the day they had the letter denied all allegations against them levelled by the MS letter and said they were striking against the MS only.

Meanwhile, the MS also asked police stations of Sachal, Rehmatpur and Civil Lines to register an FIR against eight paramedics for creating problems for hospital administration and hindrances to providing emergency cover to serious and critical patients.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2017