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Patients suffer while Govt. and unions push and pull
By Santhush Fernando
Over 85,000 health workers continued to strike for the fourth consecutive day, as talks between the Trade Union leaders and the Government had so far failed to reach a settlement in regard to the demands of the employees.

All general and base hospitals around the country, including the North and the East, are paralyzed despite the Government calling in the armed forces to carry out hospital duties. Members of the Health Service Trade Union Association which includes drivers, clerical officers, labourers, have gone on strike demanding that the Government take steps to eliminate salary anomalies with immediate effect.

As the Government and the HSTUA has failed to agree on dates for fresh talks to resolve this crisis the Health Ministry went ahead to terminate the services of 700 temporary, casual and substitute workers and instead have granted appointments for a similar number of fresh applicants.

The convener of the Trade Union Ravi Kumudesh told The Sunday Times that they were trying to obtain an Injunction Order to prevent the Ministry from recruiting new employees.

Hospital services are likely to be affected for the next few days if the strike is not resolved. Over the week some of the routine operations, clinics and medical tests were cancelled. In certain instances the hospital authorities were forced to send some of the specimens to private hospitals for laboratory tests thus incurring additional expenditure.

In some instances the hospital authorities had to purchase meals from hotels.
At the National Hospital some 250 Army personnel and 100 Policemen were deployed to perform the routine work carried out by the strikers.

National Hospital Director Hector Weerasinghe told The Sunday times that hospitals were getting used to handling such situations with the help of Police and Armed Forces, as this was the third strike faced by the health sector in recent times. He further mentioned that as drugs were being issued at Osu sala, at no cost to the patients, there would no shortage of medicine.

Dr. Anil Jasinghe, Deputy Director of the Accident and Orthopaedic Service, said that they were forced to suspend some of the operations. In a separate development, a newly formed association, namely the "Organization for the Protection of Patients' Rights" held a picketing campaign against the strike. The protest commenced at Campbell Park and proceeded towards the Health Ministry.

The participants were calling on the Government to bring an end to the strike and protect the patients. Their placards read "Minister Dayaratne give these jobs to us", "Beware if patients die" and "We call on the Government to end the strike".

The convener of the organization Siripala Perera said that they are affiliated to no political party and their motive was purely to safeguard the interests of patients.
But when some onlookers were asked for their views they alleged the Organization seemed to have the full backing of the Government and protection from the police.

Siripala Dabare, a retired government servant from Wellawatte, who was affected by the strike, said that it was doctors and nurses who struck work earlier and now it is the minor employees. He said that he was operated on September 2, and was asked to come on the 18th to be given medicine.

He had come to hospital that day even though he felt he said that heit was unlikely to receive any treatment. He said that he was compelled to come to the Government hospital because he was unable to afford the cost of an operation if it were to be performed in a private hospital. He moaned that although the rich could seek treatment at private hospitals, it is the poor who are badly hit due to the strike.

The situation took a turn for the worse as a patient lost his life on Wednesday the first day of the strike. A hospital source revealed that a 38-year old patient who was admitted to the accident service of the National Hospital, had died as the doctors could not be called in on time to administer treatment.

The Health Minister P. Dayaratne said that his Ministry had been negotiating with Treasury officials since July 2003, and a Ministerial Sub Committee comprising of high ranking officials had been appointed to look into the demands put forward by the workers. The minister mentioned that the committee had already handed over its proposals to the Treasury.

However the Health Services Trade Union Association rejected the proposals and the Treasury request for six weeks to study the proposals in detail saying the union had give the Government enough time and could wait no longer.

The Minister said that there are 290 categories of employees in the health sector and amending the salary scales for all grades is both laborious and difficult and if not done with care errors may creep causing another the crisis.

Ministry officials said that everything lies within the purview of the treasury as it is the treasury which is suppose to consider and approve the proposals. If the demands of the trade union are met and salary scales altered it would burden the Treasury with an additional staggering sum of Rs. 3,300 million a year.

The proposed salary scales are very similar to the scales which appeared in circular 37/92 of 1993, which was accepted as the most fair, by both the Government and the trade unions. Around 85,000 health workers are in a jeopardy, as the Government had issued directives to terminate all heath workers who do not report to work by Monday September 22.

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