Larkana: Lady Health Workers (LHWs) working under the administrative control of District Health Officer (DHO) held a large protest demonstration at Jinnah Bagh here on Tuesday for the award of risk allowance which has recently been done away with by the Health Department in Sindh after the end of coronavirus epidemic.
LHWs Reshma Langah, Tasleem Mughal, Salma Tunio, Ghulam Zuhra and others said that the Sindh government and its health department is constantly treating their employees stepmotherly. They said that their rights have been usurped and the rulers are not abiding by the constitution of the martyr’s party and acting like the king’s party.
They said that they have withdrawn risk allowance notification which has created unrest among them. They urged higher authorities to reconsider their decision and restore risk allowance.
Meanwhile, a surprise visit to the OPD of the Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH) on Tuesday showed that the four CMCH OPD Blocks were deserted which include Main OPD, Urology OPD, Children Hospital OPD and Shaikh Zayed Women Hospital OPD but emergency patients were being provided treatment.
Previously visitors did not find a place to get examined and medicines but all were open now except those who were regularly getting drugs for their various ailments on old or managed OPD slips and a large number among them were the CMCH employees. And political activists. Large number of poverty-stricken patients arrive here from remote and far flung areas, villages, towns and cities of over six nearby districts to get specialized medical examination and treatment.
Poor patients opined that the provincial government must decide the issue once for all so that the deserving people should not suffer for the negligence of others. One patient Abdullah asked why the allowance was given when the government knew that the virus would be eliminated sooner or later whereas another lady said that when the allowance was given then why it was withdrawn arbitrarily without consulting the related bodies?