PESHAWAR: Despite Prime Minister Imran Khan’s intervention, the boycott of doctors across the government hospitals in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province continued on Sunday, entering the fifth consecutive day.
The provincial government seems helpless in front of the protesting doctors which has led to problems for the patients across the province.
The doctors have resumed their boycott after the government did not fulfil their demand of filing a case against Provincial Health Minister Hasham Inam Ullah, whom the doctors accused of assaulting a colleague at Khyber Teaching Hospital last week.
On Saturday, during his visit of Peshawar, Prime Minister instructed Chief Minister Mehmood Khan to stay firm on his stance while negotiating with the on-strike doctors.
“Few doctors cannot blackmail the government. Reforms will be brought irrespective of the emerging pressure. The chief minister should not back off of his stance”, he said.
It may be pertinent to mention that KP Information Minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai has offered to hold talks with the doctors council over the issue. He had threatened the doctors on Friday, saying the government would open OPDs at all costs the next day.
However, doctors haven’t paid heed to his warning. They have boycotted OPD services in all major hospitals.
Scores of members of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) had 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launched against senior doctors and demanded that the first information report (FIR) registered against doctors must be withdrawn.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.
