PESHAWAR: Doctors across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) continued the boycott of their duties in outpatient departments (OPDs) of government hospitals for the fourth consecutive day on Saturday, ignoring the provincial government’s threat of removing them from service.
The situation worsened after OPD services in all major hospitals all over the province were closed due to the doctors’ protest following a brawl between a senior doctor and the provincial minister health and his guards in the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) on Tuesday.
On Friday, KP Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai announced that the government had decided to remove the protesting doctors from service if OPD services were not restored in all hospitals from Saturday.
Yousafzai claimed that OPDs will open at any cost and anyone creating hurdles would be dealt with an iron hand.
“A handful of doctors want to sabotage health reforms introduced in the province by the PTI government,” he added.
According to details, Dr Hisham Inamullah Khan and Dr Nausherwan Khan Burki had also visited the hospital while doctors chanted full-throat slogans in favour of their demands.
Scores of members of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) gathered in the largest health facility of the province, the Lady Reading Hospital and chanted slogans against the Health Minister Hisham and demanded his resignation. They also demanded the resignation of Dr Burki.
The association also denounced the departmental inquiry launched against senior doctors and demanded that the first information report (FIR) registered against doctors must be withdrawn. Further, they demanded that an FIR must be lodged against the health minister for brutally assaulting a senior doctor in the halls of KTH.
KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan took notice of the incident and summoned a report and ordered an immediate inquiry. The CM further directed to take strict action against the culprits.
