KARACHI: Patients and people in need of medical care were amongst the ultimate sufferers, denied of the needed care in most of the hospitals, in the city due to strike called by a political party on Thursday.

Prof. Said Qureishi, Medical superintendent of Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), however, dispelled the impression and said its casualty and emergency department continued to be operational, as usual and round the clock.

"CHK has its contingency plans for such instances and due to the fact that public vehicles were not on roads we used our ambulance services to transport the healthcare providers," he told APP.

In reply to a query, he conceded that since nurses and paramedical staff had also resorted to strike on call of the provincial nurses and paramedics association in support of their JPMC colleagues hence outpatient services at different departments were disturbed.

"In-fact we had started with our OPDs as usual, however, around 11 O' clock a group of paramedics arrived and disrupted the services offered there," said Dr. Qureishi.

The CHK medical superintendent said the turnover of patients at these OPDs was also comparatively low.

About surgeries for the day, he said these were executed in accordance to the schedule that are planned before hand with due consideration that staffers and their substitutes are readily available alongwith surgeons and other supporting team members.

Patients visiting Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Center (JPMC) were not that fortunate as nurses and paramedics of the hospitals protesting for acceptance of their demands for the past one week had also ensured that no surgery be performed since Saturday.

A senior doctor of the hospital on condition of anonymity said number of patients has significantly declined for the past many days and it was negligible on Thursday as public buses and wagons remained off- road.

Almost similar was the sight at other tertiary care hospitals including National Institute of Child Health and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases where emergency departments were functional with very low turnover of patients.