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Ending health sector disputes

The Health Service Trade Union Alliance warning that it is gearing for a "continuous strike" from next week is likely to trigger a mood of panic and fear particularly among the poor of Sri Lanka.

For, a crippling of public sector health services spells immense suffering and hardships for this section of the people, who constitute the majority of our population and that of those who seek succour at our government hospitals.

What is thought-provoking is that the membership of the HSTUA derives in the main from the same socio-economic background to which the majority of those who patronise government hospitals belong.

Although it could be reasoned that this commonality should compel the HSTUA to make common cause with these hapless patients, this is usually not the case.

The HSTUA strikes unconscionably and devastatingly, leaving these patients to their own devices. It is a matter for comfort, though, that there are organisations which are emerging from the people which are espousing the cause of these patients, who have no choice but to seek relief at government hospitals.

We highlight these aspects of the problem to underscore the moral issues at the heart of these endemic squabbles, which seem to be troubling the consciences of only a few.

Ideally, there ought to be a groundswell of moral opposition to the tendency among both, the health sector trade unions and the authorities, to pay comparatively little attention to the plight of the people, in these crises.

We, however, do not intend to play down the highly contentious nature of the issues that are at the core of these health sector disputes.

The challenge remains that these squabbling parties should devise ways of resolving their problems without subjecting the public-who are in no way connected to these disputes - to grave hardships.

We have been repeatedly advocating the installation of widely-representative arbitration panels for the resolution of these disputes, but no progress seems to have been made in this direction.

Meanwhile, the contending parties need to realise the importance of compromise in the resolution of these disputes.

We are given to understand that the State authorities have suggested to the HSTUA that it accepts the meeting of their salary demand on a staggered basis an account of financial constraints. Why cannot this proposal be given a fair hearing?

We are also quite aware that the health sector is rife with salary anomalies among its different categories of personnel. This is the result of past bungling in the area of granting salary increments and drawing up salary structures among the different components of health sector employees.

It is high time that the public health sector was considered a unified whole and the totality of its employees brought under a unified grading and promotional scheme. Then, perhaps, there would be less charges of discrimination.

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Media and AIDS

Incurable, deadly but preventable, AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) has spread swiftly around an unsuspecting world.

Forty million people live with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which causes full-blown AIDS. Thirty million people have died of AIDS and 14,000 more are infected with HIV globally each day. It is simply the worst epidemic we have ever faced.

AIDS is very much a disease of the modern age, having surfaced only around 20 years ago. It requires an equally modern worldwide response, in the form of an effective campaign that highlights the fact that AIDS can be prevented.

With satellite channels dotting the world and most of the planet's population within an easy reach of a radio/newspaper, one cannot underestimate the effectiveness of a global media campaign on AIDS.

More than 20 leading media companies have at last realised that they should play a major role in spreading the message vis-a-vis AIDS. On Thursday, they signed an agreement to participate in a United Nations campaign to heighten public awareness and fight the spread of AIDS.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan launched the Global Media Initiative to use the power of the media to help in the struggle against AIDS.

Now, media face the challenge of bringing the disease out of the shadows and getting people to talk about it in an open, informed way. AIDS remains a taboo subject in many societies and the patients are socially isolated. There are many myths about the disease itself, which media can help to put right.

Programs on AIDS may not essentially be boring documentaries - a blend of information and entertainment will get the message across especially to the younger generation.

In fact, the UN has urged producers to introduce more characters who are faced with the illness in tele-series. Portraying such patients from the correct perspective is vital - HIV-positive people need our unstinted support, not superficial sympathy.

Sri Lankan media companies too should take a cue from this initiative and tailor programs that give correct information on AIDS in an easy-to-understand format. The sooner we clear the air of AIDS misconceptions, the better.

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