The protest by Young Doctors Association (YDA) on Thursday continued on the second consecutive day across the province and all outdoor and indoor service and outpatient departments of government hospitals were closed due to the protests.
YDA went on strike when the doctors, including YDA Gujranwala President Dr Kashif Bilal, were arrested for threatening Gujranwala District Headquarters Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Anwar Aman and ransacking his office.
The protesting doctors had closed OPDs of all the government hospitals including Mayo Hospital, Services Hospital, Gangaram Hospital, Jinnah, Mian Munshi, Nawaz Sharif and General Hospitals in Lahore and other parts of the province.
The Punjab Health Department imposed compulsory Service Act in all the government hospitals. Under the act, all staff including doctors, nurses and paramedical staff would ensure their duties in the hospitals.
Moreover, the Health Department, after preliminary investigations, initiated action against the doctors involved in violence against the medical superintendent and media team in District Headquarters Hospital Gujranwala.
The decision came after a visit by Health Special Secretary Babar Tarar, who maintained that no one could be allowed to create a law and order situation.
According to a spokesman of the Health Department, after termination of the services of two doctors, suspension of six doctors and issuance of show cause notices to five doctors involved in violent activities and ransacking, instructions had been issued for departmental action.
The two doctors who have been removed from service include Dr Zohaib and Dr Abdullah.
Similarly, five doctors who have been suspended include Dr Kashif Bilal, Dr Farasat Ali, Dr Kashif Bashir, Dr Fareha Bajwa, Dr Muhammad Tahir and Dr Waqar Idress. Meanwhile, Dr Fareha Kashif, Dr Umar Rathore, Dr Yahya Zia, Dr Hasnain and Dr Waqar Azeem have been issued show cause notices and departmental action has been initiated against them.
PATIENTS SUFFER: Meanwhile, thousands of patients suffered difficulties outside hospitals in severe cold as the doctors were on strike.
“We have come from Chitral for medical treatment but the doctors are on strike. It is very cold and we will have to spend the night in the rest area because we have no idea when the strike will end, because no one will admit my mother without the OPD,” an attendant at Mayo Hospital told Pakistan Today. A senior doctor, on the condition of anonymity said, “Almost all the patients coming to the OPDs of government hospitals are from lower sections of the society and any strike affects them the most as they have no other alternative.”
Young doctors leave poor patients out in the cold
