The Punjab Social Security Doctor’s Association (SSDA) on Thursday protested at all the social security hospitals in Punjab for their demands.
The doctors protested in hospitals in several cities, including Lahore, Faisalabad, Okara, Multan, Gujranwal and Rawalpindi. In Lahore, the protest was held at the Nawaz Sharif Social Security Hospital, Multan Road and traffic was blocked for over 2 hours by scores of social security doctors, who were chanting slogans against the bureaucracy of the Social Security Department for depriving the doctors of Health Professional Allowance (HPA) despite the approval by the chief minister. The protest was led by Dr Safdar Hussain Baloch and Young Doctors Association (YDA) Chairman Dr Talha Sherwani. The protesters said that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had raised the salary of doctors in the form of HPA and raised the salary of house officers and postgraduate residents by Rs 6,000 and Rs 20,000 and medical officers and consultants by Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000, respectively. However, the social security bureaucracy has not implemented the decision of the CM, forcing the doctors to protest.
The protesters demanded immediate notification of the increase in salaries, threatening of a complete strike at all social security hospitals on January 23 if the demands were not met.
The protest would continue on Friday (tomorrow) at 11:00 am at the Social Security Hospital, Multan road and in other cities in Punjab.
