Doctors slam mayor’s remarks, seek reforms at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital
Medical bodies demand release of pending salaries, improved facilities, and recruitment to revive struggling KMC-run institution.
IV Report
KARACHI: The Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA), joined by
representatives of several other professional bodies, on Saturday (August 30)
voiced concern over what they called “inappropriate” remarks made by Karachi
Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab regarding protesting doctors at the Karachi
Metropolitan Corporation–run Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH).
The controversy began a day earlier
when Mayor Wahab, while addressing an event on August 29, reportedly dismissed
the protesting doctors’ concerns, stating that only 70–80 employees were
seeking pay raises. According to reports, he warned that “boycotts and walkouts
will not work,” and that non-performing staff could face consequences. He was
also quoted as telling the striking doctors: “If you feel your salary is low, leave the job.”
PIMA Sindh President Prof Abdullah
Muttaqi, PIMA Karachi President Dr Syed Ahmer Hamid, YDA Sindh President Dr
Waris Jakhrani, YDA Karachi President Dr Faisal Javed, and PMA Sindh General
Secretary Dr Muhammad Khan Sher were among the leaders who addressed the media.
At the outset, they condemned the mayor’s remarks, terming them “immoderate and
insensitive,” particularly when the issue centered around unpaid or irregular
salaries.
According to the speakers, almost 70
per cent of Resident Medical Officers (RMOs) on the hospital’s payroll were not
performing duties but still drawing salaries. They noted that no fresh
recruitment had taken place at ASH since 2012, and at the Karachi Medical and
Dental College (now a KMC university) since 2007. As a result, many departments
remain understaffed or non-functional, with around half the doctors retired and
wards being kept afloat by senior staff working without medicines or proper
resources.
The leaders painted a grim picture
of conditions at the hospital: three of the four lifts in the old block are out
of order, there is no canteen for 1,800 staff, and even water supply has been
unavailable for the past week. Sanitation standards are described as “extremely
poor” due to a shortage of cleaning staff.
On the clinical side, they said
there were no medicines available in the emergency or general wards, while
operation theaters were functioning with only two faculty members across three
surgery units. Neurosurgery, they claimed, was non-functional, trauma surgeries
were not being conducted, and radiology services were so inadequate that
patients were forced to seek CT scans from private facilities.
The speakers also alleged that the
KMC’s ultimate plan was to privatise ASH, pointing out that charges for patient
services were being increased in the name of “revenue generation” while
development funds were withheld.
Concluding what resembled a
whitepaper on the hospital’s crisis, the associations demanded the immediate
release of all outstanding salaries of house officers and postgraduate
trainees, and parity of pay scales with other Sindh institutions in line with
the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) rules. They also called
for uninterrupted supply of funds and medicines, urgent recruitment of doctors
and staff, restoration of basic facilities including water and sanitation, and
an overall uplift of the working environment at ASH so that health
professionals could perform their duties effectively.
Photos from PIMA & KMC
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