Pending demands: Punjab YDA threatens protest

Association’s members across the province will boycott duties for a few hours every day from Nov 29

RAWALPINDI: The Young Doctors Association (YDA) on Sunday announced that they would start holding protests outside major public hospitals across Punjab, including Rawalpindi, to push the government to fulfil their longstanding demands.

In a press release, YDA Punjab Chairman Dr Haider Akhtar noted that a general council meeting of the association had decided to launch fresh protests to force the government to accept their demands. The YDA wants the Punjab government to end its central induction policy for postgraduate programmes in medical colleges of the province.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Dr Akhtar said that in July 2016, the Punjab government changed the induction policy, which created unrest among the doctors.

Earlier, he said, doctors would select specialisations of their own choice after passing the relevant exams. He said the government had practically taken away doctors’ ability to specialise in their preferred field, which is why the doctors want the policy withdrawn.

He said the YDA also wants the government to regularise medical officers working on ad hoc basis at various rural health centres and basic health centres.

Dr Akhtar explained that the government had appointed them on ad hoc basis as most doctors hired through the Punjab Public Service Commission were unwilling to serve in the peripheries.

The third demand, which YDA Punjab made, was for medical officers working in the peripheries to work in tertiary hospitals in the cities. Dr Akhtar said that in 2013, it was decided that medical officers working in rural areas would be allowed to work at major public hospitals after completing three years of service, but the government had yet to follow up on that.

Besides these issues, the YDA is asking the Punjab government to immediately start work on incomplete health projects in major public hospitals across Punjab.

In Rawalpindi, the doctors want the provincial government to complete the Mother and Child Care Hospital on Eidgah Road, the Institute of Urology on Benazir Bhutto Road, work on a new emergency ward at Benazir Bhutto Hospital, and other projects

The YDA chairman said that unless these demands are met, YDA members would walk out of hospitals and would stage protests for one or two hours every day from November 29 onwards.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2016.