LAHORE: Young Doctors Association (YDA) continued their protest on Thursday (Today) in different cities of Punjab over the attempted arrest of Vice-President of the association, Dr Atif.
Patients continued to suffer at Lahore’s Services Hospital as the junior doctors’ protest entered its third consecutive day. The doctors closed the outpatient department (where patients are diagnosed) and emergency wards.
Meanwhile, in Faisalabad, doctors are observing strike and urged the provincial government to consider their demands.
In Multan, senior doctors have started monitoring the patients in replacement to the young doctors.
According to ACE officials, a departmental team arrested Young Doctors Association (YDA) Vice President Dr Atif Majeed who was accused of embezzlement worth millions of rupees. However, his accomplices including Dr Hamid Butt, Dr Farhan Sahi, and Dr Basharat Gill forced the officials to free him after he had been taken to the vehicle of the ACE.
Patients from Lahore and other nearby cities were forced to seek treatment elsewhere because of the complete shutdown at the hospital. The junior doctors of Services Hospital announced that they would continue their boycott of emergency, indoor, and outpatient departments at one of the province’s major teaching hospitals.
The protesting doctors said that their boycott would be extended to other hospitals as well if the ACE officials were are not arrested. They said that they were not involved in any financial embezzlement and that the government was intimidating YDA leadership through the Anti-Corruption Establishment.