KARACHI: A large number of house officers and postgraduate trainees protested at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) on Monday over non-payment of salaries.

Condemning the “government’s discriminatory attitude”, they demanded the same salary structure as currently being offered to their counterparts working at other public sector healthcare facilities.

Speaking to Dawn, a representative of the ASH Young Doctors’ Association regretted that the government had failed persistently to pay healthcare providers in time.

“Our house officers haven’t been paid their salaries for the last three months whereas several postgraduate trainees have been waiting for their salaries for almost a year. This situation is unacceptable,” the representative shared, wishing not to be named, while narrating how doctors were finding it hard to make ends meet in those high inflation days.

Protesting doctors say house officers are getting Rs45,000 per month compared to Rs65,000 received by their counterparts at JPMC and NICH

About the government’s “discrimination”, doctors explained that the house officers received Rs45,000 and postgraduate trainees Rs75,000 at the ASH.

The house officers at other public sector hospitals, including Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and National Institute of Child Health (NICH), they pointed out, were getting Rs65,000 and postgraduate trainees over Rs100,000.

“We demand that the government end this unfair practice and offer us the same pay package as being given to our colleagues at other hospitals,” another doctor said, warning that they might be forced to boycott patient services if their demands were not met.

The doctors at the ASH also said that they were working in extremely poor and vulnerable conditions as the so-called tertiary care hospital of the city lacked safe and secure working conditions and didn’t have functional diagnostic facilities, including its X-ray machine, at the emergency department of the hospital.

In addition, a protester said, the operation theatre of the ENT department was also dysfunctional.

“Also, the hospital faces an acute water shortage, creating lots of problems for patients as well as healthcare providers. The administration is well aware of all these issues but haven’t done anything to fix them,” he said.

Meanwhile, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman visited ASH and expressed grave concerns over the deteriorating situation of affairs in and around the health facility run by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.

Talking to the media, he said the poor state of affairs at the hospital exposed the reality behind the claims made by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government in Sindh about Karachi and the health sector.

He urged the protesting doctors not to opt for strike and continue serving patients.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2023