35 doctors issued notices, YDA holding firm

Punjab government issues notices to 35 out of 120 YDA office bearers in teaching hospitals across the province

LAHORE:

The Punjab government, on Tuesday, issued notices to 35 out of 120 Young Doctors’ Association (YDA) office bearers in teaching hospitals across the province. Many doctors have refused to comply with the government’s orders, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Several professors told The Express Tribune they had refused to comply with the government’s orders to stop their students from striking. Instead, they said they had told their principals in Tuesday’s academic council meetings to advise the government to ‘stop using their shoulder to shoot at the doctors’.

Principals of Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad, Shaikh Zayed Medical College, Rahim Yar Khan and Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Lahore have refused to comply with the orders to serve notices or warning letters to the doctors.

The Express Tribune learnt from the concerned medical superintendents (MS) and principals that Quaid-i-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur has issued 11 notices to Post Graduate Resident Doctors (PGRs) and PGR Medical Officers (MOs), Fatima Jinnah Medical College/Ganga Ram Hospital has issued three notices to PGRs, Jinnah Hospital/Allama Iqbal Medical College five, Lahore General Hospital four and Mayo Hospital/King Edward Medical University six. The notice warns the PGRs and PGRMOs to mend their ways by March 20 otherwise their post graduate training would be terminated and concerned principals would write to the head of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan to revoke their registration. The notice charges the recipients with misconduct. The law requires PGRs and PGRMOs to submit an affidavit of good conduct at the time of enrolment.

Sources in the Health Department said all teaching hospitals on Tuesday held meetings of academic councils in which several professors refused to comply with the government’s order to issue show cause notices. They said that the Health Department had also directed supervisors to calm down their students but they had refused to do so. Instead, they had warned the government not to bother them otherwise they would also join the protest.

Punjab Medical College principal/ Allied Hospital Professor Riaz Hussain Dhabb said that negotiations between doctors and professors continued and there would be a resolution soon. Mayo Hospital MS Dr Zahid Pervaiz confirmed that several professors had opposed the government’s orders.

YDA president Dr Hamid Butt who works at Services Hospital as MO said that on Wednesday the YDA will only boycott Out Patient Departments (OPDs) and treat patients in tents set up on roadsides. He said on Thursday they would close all OPDs, indoor units, wards and operation theatres. He said that YDA would make the government accept their demands.

Health Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad said the YDA demand for salary raises was unrealistic. He said the doctors should wait for next year’s budget. He said that the government did not want to stop the doctors from exercise of their democratic rights but warned that work at hospitals might suffer and thousands of patients admitted there could be left stranded.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2011.