Batticaloa hospital staff stage token strike

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 September 2007, 04:42 GMT]
The doctors and supporting staff of Batticaloa Teaching Hospital staged a token strike Thursday protesting against the shortage of doctors demanding immediate appointment of additional doctors.

The two hour token protest against the Sri Lanka Health Ministry beginning at 10:00 a.m. brought all activities of the hospital to a standstill .More than 500 patients in the Out Patients Department (OPD) left the hospital without receiving treatment.

While the hospital needs 46 doctors, only 16 are serving at the moment, sources said.

Repeated requests to the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) has been ignored and if their demands are not met in the near future, they will continue to stage further protests, the hospital Adminstrator Dr.K.Muruganantham said

The Health Ministry action is another calculated measure of the Government of Sri Lanka to create additional difficulties to Batticaloa residents, civilian sources complained .