News
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
PMA asks government to solve doctors’ problems
KARACHI: Pakistan Medical Association (PMA)’s President Prof Idrees Adhi said that his association fully supports the struggle of young doctors and health workers.
In a statement issued here on Monday, he said that the PMA was deeply concerned about the state of affairs created by the bureaucracy and government functionaries regarding the issues being faced by young doctors throughout the country.
He said the PMA on repeated occasions had submitted the service structure of doctors and raised the issue of extremely low salary packages for healthcare workers. The government officials have always turned a blind eye to these genuine demands that resulted in the ongoing scenario where patients were suffering due to doctors’ strike.
He said PMA reiterates its policy that patients should not suffer under any circumstances and should have the access to emergency services round the clock. “We, therefore, demand that government to take immediate steps to fulfill the demands of doctors and healthcare workers”.
He said that the PMA also demands of the government to refrain from threatening health workers with extreme disciplinary actions reported in media.
Meanwhile, the Young Doctors Action Committee (YDAC) called for a token strike in the emergency and OPD departments of government-run hospitals across the province, including the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC). Under-training doctors of the province would boycott ICUs and OPDs for an hour to register their protests against low salaries.
YDAC President Dr Abbas Shah said postgraduate doctors are given insufficient pay of Rs 12,000 in Sindh while postgraduate doctors in federal-run hospitals are given Rs 22,000, which is a clear atrocity with the former. He said the emergency and OPD in all hospitals across the province including JPMC, NICH, and Civil Hospital Karachi would be boycotted from 11:00am on Tuesday (today). He warned that if the salaries of doctors ware not raised inline with those of Punjab, the token strike would take a shape of protest movement. He said the government should refrain from any action against doctors because they are observing the protest peacefully while the government should learn a lesson from Punjab. ppi/staff report
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk