Radiologists suspend tomorrow’s strike in nine hospitals

Radiologists in nine key hospitals have decided to temporarily call off the island-wide strike scheduled for tomorrow over a dispute regarding on-call payments at the Batticaloa hospital, a trade union leader said.

President of the Government Radiological Technologists Association Chanaka Dharmawickrama told Times Online that the dispute was due to the Director of the Batticaloa Hospital refraining from providing on-call duty payments for about two months.

However the ongoing work-to-rule action at the Batticaloa Hospital launched on March 18 will continue.

"We will temporarily call off the strike because these are cancer patients we are dealing with," he said.

The nine hospitals which were scheduled to take part in the strike are as follows. The Apeksha hospital in Maharagama, National Hospital in Kandy, Teaching Hospitals in Kurunegala Anuradhapura, Jaffna, Badulla, Hambantota, and Karapitiya.

"The DG of Health services and the secretary and many more advised the Director of the Batticaloa Hospital to proceed with the payments in writing, but he disregarded it and refrained from providing the payment" Mr. Dharmawickrama said.

He further alleged that the Director had attempted to influence the other eight hospitals that the payment procedure was incorrect.