PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Paramedical Association (KPPA) will observe a strike today (Tuesday) at all public sector health facilities in the province against the government failure to give them a service structure.

The association’s members will gather at the Lady Reading Hospital here from where they would proceed towards KP Assembly building to record protest.

The decision to observe the strike was taken at a meeting attended by the association’s leaders, including Sirajuddin Burki, Syed Roidar Shah, Luqman Gul and others, according to a press release.

Unlike other employees of the health department the paramedics didn’t get facilities commensurate with the services they performed and the government was trying to befool the 15,000 paramedics in the province on mere announcements, said the release quoting the participants of the meeting.

The participants vowed that they would continue to call for a service structure for paramedics who were often retired in the same grade in which they were recruited. They said most of the paramedics had qualification from the government’s institutions and deserved promotions.

The paramedics said they fully backed the health reforms agenda of the present government but wanted it to announce health professional allowance for them on the pattern of doctors.

They said that the paramedics association had been holding strikes at divisional hospitals but the government seemed unwilling to address the problems they were facing, adding the government could not deprive them of their rights through intimidation.

The paramedics said during the planned strike, complete emergency cover would be given to the critically-ill and wounded people.