Pakistan Medical Association Lahore office bearers during a press conference at PMA House Lahore declared the government’s policy of buying cheapest, low quality medicines and the lack of quality control as the main reason for the deaths of the patients as a result of the drugs reaction in the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore. They said the appointments of juniors as heads of medical institutions in the name of good governess was affecting the performance of the institutions and the senior doctors should not have been deprived of their rights.
They said both the federal and provincial government were coming down hard on the doctors instead of finding the real culprits, adding that while the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had started harassing and arresting senior doctors, the provincial government was suspending senior doctors. The doctors’ community strongly condemned the victimisation of doctors by the government and said such moves would be met with resistance.
The association clarified that the Health Department was a technical department and the bureaucracy of the DMG had badly failed to run the Health Department. They demanded of the CM to hand the Health Department over to the doctors.
They demanded of the federal and provincial governments to established a drug Regulatory Authority under the 18thamendment, stop the victimisation of the doctors, upgrade and restructure the drug testing lab, abolish autonomous institution act 2003 and the autonomy and do all appoints in all medical institutions on the basis of seniority-cum-fitness and remove all juniors from the seats.
