KARACHI: A large number of patients did not receive treatment at the emergency ward and outpatient department (OPD) of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital on Friday as young doctors shut the facilities and boycotted the emergency section in protest over non-payment of their stipend for months.

At least 153 house officers, who were appointed in April this year, have been deprived of their monthly salary for the past four months. Their 12 other colleagues, who were inducted in November 2023, have not received their salaries for the last 10 months.

Hundreds of patients visit the Abbasi Shaheed’s OPD on a daily basis and Friday was the third consecutive day when it was not functional owing to the protest.

The protesting doctors, who staged a sit-in inside the OPD, said that they would keep the OPD shut until their demand was met.

Patients suffer as service delivery at OPD and emergency remains suspended

Speaking to this correspondent, their representative Dr Arsal Ahmed said that an application was sent to hospital official Dr Faisal Samdani on July 18 asking them to release the doctors’ stipend. He said he was informed that the doctors would hold a protest if their salaries were not released.

He said the doctors staged a protest on August 1. “Consequently, we were told that we will receive our salaries by August 20. We waited, but they gave us new dates. So, we started our protest on August 21 in which we boycotted the emergency department and closed OPDs.”

Another house officer, who asked not to be named, said that the management had warned them of dire consequences if their protest continued.

“Instead of addressing our grievances, the management is telling us that if we continue with our protest they will seek help of police and Rangers to disperse us and make the OPD functional,” she said.

She added that they were also being threatened by the head of departments of different wards that if they would boycott the emergency, their house jobs would be delayed as they would need to compensate for the days they missed work to attend the protest.

She further said that the house officers at Abbasi Shaheed were already being paid less than the house officers of other hospitals.

“Our salary is Rs45,000 per month, while the other hospitals like Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and Civil Hospital Karachi pay over Rs69,600 to their house officers. Firstly, we are already underpaid. Secondly, even that is not being paid to us.”

However, ASH Director Dr Samdhani termed the protest ‘unnecessary’ and said that the house officers were creating a fuss over nothing as their salaries were due to be paid on August 25.

He said that it was a ‘routine delay’ as it took at least three to four months to release the salaries of new inductees due to the documentation and other procedural work. “You will see their salaries will be credited on August 25.”

Over the closure of the OPD, he said: “What can we do if a mob sits and forcefully closes the doors of OPDs. They are mostly girls so we can’t do much about it. However, all the other departments are functioning perfectly. Our RMOs, PGs and other doctors are running the operations smoothly.”

The doctors said that their protest will continue on Saturday (today).

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2024