YDA protests jam up city roads

Partial closure of OPDs creates problems for patients, attendants

LAHORE: Junior doctors held another protest on Thursday as they blocked major thoroughfares of the city, including Ferozepur, Canal, Mall and Ravi roads for at least three hours.

The medics took to the streets on the form of a rally from their respective hospitals. They demanded the withdrawal of the central induction policy (CIP), strict implementation of the one bed, one attendant policy, law and order at government-run hospitals and sacking of Punjab Secretary for Health Najam Shah.



The protestors said “he is a bureaucrat and does not know how to run hospitals.”

With banners in hand, a large number of doctors took part in the demonstration and chanted slogans against the government. The doctors alleged the provincial government was planning to remove doctors from their jobs by introducing the CIP.

To record their protest, the medics blocked the streets for three hours from 10 am to 1 pm, while also partially shutting down OPDs at the Children, General, Jinnah, PIC and Mayo hospitals. This created a host of problems for patients and their attendants.

“The policy is preventing doctors from attaining higher education,” said one of the protesters. They warned if the policy was not changed, medical professionals would be forced to prolong their demonstration.



Talking to the media, Dr Atif Majeed of the Services Hospital said the situation is getting from bad to worse in the Punjab healthcare system. He added doctors were forced to act as ushers to make please the ruling elite.

“They should construct the burn units around Punjab. The Ahmedpur Sharqia incident was a prime example of the government’s negligence towards healthcare,” he asserted.

“This is just a small of protest of YDA, but we will show our muscle if the government fails to withdraw anti-people policies,”.

The government has not responded to the demands put forward by the doctors as yet.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2017.