KARACHI, Jan 2: Regardless of the sufferings of hundreds of patients who turn up at the casualty ward of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre every day needing treatment on an emergency basis, postgraduate doctors stayed away from work on Thursday.

The postgraduate doctors went on strike on Wednesday demanding a monthly salary with arrears following an altercation with the federal health secretary, Ejaz Rahim, at the certificate-distribution ceremony at the College of Nursing. Mr Rahim had declined to speak to the postgraduate doctors saying that he had already taken the administrative steps requesting the government to institute a stipend for the postgraduate doctors.

Speaking to Dawn, a large number of patients outside the casualty ward of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre said they had been greatly inconvenienced by the strike of doctors. “The first and foremost duty of a doctor is to attend to the needs of a patient. As a matter of fact, a doctor takes an oath that he will put the interests of his patient above those of his. We do not know over what the administration of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre is quarrelling with the postgraduate doctors, but it should realize that the real sufferers are patients,” Rahim Khan, a resident of New Karachi, told Dawn. He was at the hospital with his son who had an acute stomach pain.

A member of the Postgraduates’ Action Committee, Dr Irfan Sattar, told Dawn that postgraduate doctors had met the director of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and other senior professors at around 1pm. “The director assured us that he would arrange our meeting with the federal health minister. Later in the day, we called on the federal health minister, who said that within three weeks a stipend would be instituted. A committee was also formed which decided to pursue the matter on a weekly basis.”

Dr Sattar said that the postgraduate doctors would fix upon a course of action at a meeting on Friday morning.

JPMC spokesman Dr Anwer said the negotiations between the postgraduate doctors and the federal health minister had been successful. He admitted that because the postgraduate doctors constituted more than 50 per cent of the total strength of the JPMC, work had suffered a lot when the postgraduate doctors had remained on strike.

Representatives of the Postgraduates’ Action Committee claimed that in provinces other than Sindh the postgraduate doctors received a monthly stipend.

Last week the committee had staged a demonstration in front of the office of the director of the JPMC.