After three days: Ayub Teaching Hospital’s doctors call off strike

Family of a patient who died at the hospital had manhandled doctors, ransacked ward

ABBOTTABAD: Doctors at the Ayub Teaching Hospital Wednesday called off a strike against the manhandling of their colleagues by attendants of a patient.

Dr Junaid of the urology department at ATH told Mir Pur police that Malik Muhammad Ghareeb’s wife, Mariyam, had been brought to the hospital with kidney problems on Sunday. Despite the fact that doctors provided her with medical treatment, Mariyam succumbed to her ailment and died.

However, this angered her son, later identified as Malik Waheed, who went on a rampage through the hospital along with his accomplices. They thrashed Dr Junaid and another doctor on duty while accusing the doctors of negligence and delaying treatment for her mother and caused her death.

Owing to the harassment, ATH’s doctors went on a strike from Monday, closing down the OPD. A complaint was also lodged with the Mir Pur police.

After the police failed to respond to their complaint immediately, it further infuriated the doctors who continued their strike till Wednesday.

The strike caused patients; both indoor and outdoor; several problems.

The police, though, did register a case against Waheed and over seven unidentified accomplices for obstructing doctors from their duty under section 186 of the PPC. Waheed, though managed to obtain a bail from the court, police said.

However, doctors called off their strike on Wednesday afternoon and resumed their duties.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2017.