ISLAMABAD: Employees of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) held a strike almost throughout the day on Monday, even though their representatives had said they will only strike for three hours Monday onwards as thousands of patients were being turned back.

Pims Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Akram claims he can address the issue if given a free hand by the ministry and government as he has dealt with a number of strikes at Jinnah Hospital Lahore.

“According to a judgement of the Lahore High Court, the services of the health sector are considered essential services and strikes [in this sector] should be considered a crime. I can address the issue by suspending the responsible persons and handing over the leaders to the police for which I should be given a free hand and the government should give an assurance that it will not interfere,” he said.

When the services of a particular organisation or sector are declared essential, employees of that sector or organisation cannot hold a protest or strike including employees of law enforcement agencies and armed forces.

Dr Akram says strikes in the health sector are considered a crime

“I suggest that the employees should hold protests, lock offices, block roads and even suspend services to parliamentarians and bureaucrats, but they should not suspend services to poor patients, who cannot afford treatment from elsewhere,” he said.

“I can take action against the employees, but it will be embarrassing if the ministry or government back off later. I went to the Ministry of Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) after the strike started, and requested them to issue a letter saying the jobs and benefits of Pims employees will not be affected. The letter was issued on Oct 6, but the employees are not willing to work still,” he said.

Pims employees have been demanding the hospital be separated from the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University and have been protesting for seven days during which the outpatient departments and laboratories were closed, 200 operations were postponed every day and some 10,000 patients a day could not get the treatment they needed.

On Monday, Ehtishamul Haq was brought to the hospital after a road accident and did not receive any treatment after waiting for half an hour.

Mohammad Siddique, who was accompanying Mr Haq, told Dawn a doctor at a private clinic had suggested the patient be taken to Pims for fixing a fracture in his leg as it would be costly otherwise.

“There is a long queue at the emergency department and we may not receive treatment so we are considering either going back to the private clinic or to polyclinic,” he said.

A doctor at the office said there cannot be any justification for the strike because poor people are the ones suffering because of it.

“I suggest the police should be called in and those not willing to work should be dismissed from service. The hospital should immediately hire doctors and staff from the private sector just like the Punjab government did after young doctors announced a strike,” he said.

A representative of the Pims employees’ union Tanveer Noshahi told Dawn employees had taken a unanimous decision that they will use all possible avenues in order to separate the hospital from the university.

“We can even stop emergency services for achieving our goal because the government has been delaying our long standing demand,” he said.

Pims Employees Association spokesperson Dr Asfandyar Khan told Dawn he has been trying to convince the staff to resume services for general patients. He said that they had opened the OPD after 11am due to ministry pressure and that some employees had agreed to work due to which 459 patients were registered and provided treatment.

During a normal day, some 10,000 patients are given treatment at the outpatient departments at the hospital.

A CADD official said the minister and all concerned officers were doing all they could to convince employees to go back to work as doing legislation will take time.

A welfare hospital before, Pims became an affiliated hospital of the university in 2013 and the status of its employees, who were civil servants, was gradually changed and they have been offered to become employees of the university. Quotas for their children in appointments and various courses are being withdrawn. The employees have held a number of protests but the issue has not been addressed despite several assurances.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2017