KARACHI: The Muttahida Workers Front CBA of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KW&SC) has expressed serious concern over the medical treatment system for employees and their families, saying that prescribed financial limits are creating difficulties for patients requiring prolonged or critical care.
In a statement, the CBA said recent incidents involving KW&SC employees and their family members had created anxiety and a sense of insecurity among workers, particularly over what happens when the available medical treatment limit is exhausted during a serious illness.
The union referred to the case of KW&SC employee Atiq Ahmed, whose treatment reportedly faced difficulties after the prescribed medical limit was exhausted.
It also cited the case of the wife of an employee identified as Asif, saying she experienced difficulties in obtaining appropriate medical care after the treatment limit was exhausted and later died during treatment.
The CBA said another KW&SC employee, Azizullah Jokhio, remained in critical condition at Patel Hospital for four days. According to the union, after his prescribed treatment limit was exhausted, his family had to spend approximately Rs65,000 from their own resources.
The union said Azizullah was subsequently shifted to Civil Hospital, where, according to the CBA, he could not receive the required medical care in time and later passed away.
The deaths of Asif’s wife and Azizullah Jokhio have raised serious concerns among KW&SC workers about the effectiveness of the existing medical arrangements, the union said.
It questioned what mechanism was available to protect an employee or dependent requiring continued lifesaving treatment once the prescribed financial ceiling had been reached.
The CBA said the issue affected not merely individual families but thousands of KW&SC employees and their dependents.
It noted that water corporation workers perform their duties in extreme heat, rain, at night and under hazardous conditions to maintain Karachi’s water supply and sewerage services, and therefore their access to adequate healthcare required urgent attention.
The Muttahida Workers Front CBA appealed to the KW&SC Managing Director, corporation management and other relevant authorities to take immediate notice of the situation and review the existing medical arrangements on an emergency basis.
The union demanded restoration of previously available medical facilities and called for a system under which an employee or dependent requiring critical treatment would not be left without adequate medical support merely because a prescribed financial limit had been exhausted.
It maintained that healthcare facilities for employees were an essential component of their welfare and said any system that forced seriously ill workers to spend their savings or face disruption in treatment after reaching a financial ceiling required urgent review.
The CBA demanded improvement of the existing medical system, restoration of previous medical facilities, revision of treatment limits, special arrangements for serious and life-threatening illnesses, and a transparent investigation into the recent cases.
The union urged the authorities to introduce an effective mechanism to ensure that no KW&SC employee or family member is deprived of timely medical treatment in future because the prescribed financial limit has been exhausted.
“Employees’ lives are precious, and protection of their health and access to treatment must be given the highest priority,” the CBA said.
