LARKANA: A large number of patients and their attendants most of whom came from remote rural areas to the Chandka Medical College Hospital faced great inconvenience on Monday when they found out-patients departments as well as laboratories shut in response to Young Doctors Association’s call for protest.

The association boycotted OPD duties in protest against Saturday’s incident when an angry mob ransacked the office of medical superintendent after the death of a snake-bite patient.

A group of patients and their relatives who had travelled to the CHCH from Nasirabad staged protest against the closure of OPDs. It was not fair to boycott OPDs where the end sufferers would be the patients, they said.

The doctors demonstrated inside the hospital after boycotting work and wore black armbands.

Dr Raja Lakhir, central deputy general secretary of YDA, told Dawn that they were only providing emergency cover to the patients. They were only doing emergency tests, said paramedics, adding that about 3,000 to 3,500 patients reported at the OPDs daily and they had to face untold suffering due to the strike.

CMCH MS Dr Gulzar Tunio said that he had conveyed the situation to Larkana deputy commissioner and Chief Minister House about the central OPD’s boycott.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Medical Association’s Larkana chapter held a meeting at PMA office to review the situation in the backdrop of the Saturday’s incident at the CMCH.

The meeting failed to arrive at a decision, said Dr Raja.

The YDA tabled proposals to either tender en block resignations, go on leave or resort to transfers to press for their demands, he said, adding that doctors had called for providing adequate security at hospitals.

A black day was observed in JPMC, NICH Karachi, LUMHS Jamshoro, Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences, Nawabshah, and Ghulam Muhammed Mahar Medical College Sukkur, in solidarity with CMCH doctors, he said.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2022