Tuesday, 29 October 2019

No end to patients’ woes: Health workers in KP continue boycott of duties for 33rd day

PESHAWAR: Thousands of patients in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been suffering for the past 33 days due to nonstop strike by the doctors, paramedics, nursing staff and non-technical workers in the province.All the health workers, including doctors, paramedics, nursing staff and non-technical employees and class-IV workers have been on strike since September 27 and paralysed health services in the public sector hospitals of the province.They continued to boycott duties for the 33rd day on Tuesday. There seems no hope that they could call off the strike in the near future as both sides, the government and the protesting health workers, stick to rigid own stands. The health workers under the banner of Grand Health Alliance (GHA), are protesting against the Regional Health Authority (RHA) and District Health Authority (DHA) which the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly passed recently.The GHA is an umbrella organisation of all the associations of doctors, paramedics, nursing staff and class-IV workers of the public sector hospitals. Since September 27, there have been no services at the outpatient departments, operation theaters, pathology and radiology departments of the government-run hospitals. A group of senior doctors earlier arranged a meeting of the protesting doctors with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan but that failed to resolve the issue.Some of the doctors present in the meeting had told The News that from Mahmood Khan’s conversation they felt that he was either powerless or least bothered in finding an amicable solution to the issue.After realising that the chief minister would not agree to their demands of rolling back the reforms process, they approached senior leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in Islamabad and sought their assistance in resolving the issues with KP government.According to doctors, former parliamentarian from Orakzai tribal district, Dr Ghazi Gulab Jamal, also known as Dr GG Jamal, arranged their meeting with the PTI leaders in Islamabad, including Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, Religious Affairs Minister Maulana Noorul Haq Qadri and Speaker National Assembly Assad Qaiser.“They heard us patiently and assured us to discuss all the issues with the KP chief minister and health minister. The meeting was held a couple of days ago but we could not hear from them about any progress,” said a doctor present at the meeting.

from The News International - National https://ift.tt/2osKYcm
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