Senior doctors vow to support juniors

Ordinance prohibiting strikes rejected by doctors.

QUETTA:

In an expected move, senior doctors and professors in Quetta on Sunday announced to support junior doctors’ strike, dismissing the Essential Health Service Ordinance 2011 enforced by the Balochistan government. The law prohibits strikes in hospitals.

Doctors organised a rally within the premises of Sandeman Hospital where they set the copies of the ordinance on fire. Representative of senior doctors, Professor Naqibullah Achakzai and president of the Young Doctors’ Association Dr Abdul Samad, while addressing the rally, said that doctors will not accept the Essential Health Service Ordinance of 2011 as it is meant to pressurise the doctors and suppress their legitimate demands.

They said that if government will not withdraw the ordinance, doctors will approach the judiciary. A ban has been imposed on the private practices of doctors and in case of violation, the doctors will be sacked from their service, facing three years of imprisonment. The law is enforced upon all doctors of the health department.

Balochistan Governor Zulfiqar Ali Magsi formally signed the ordinance while the government of Balochistan enforced the law with immediate effect declaring the on-going strike as illegal and against the law.

The doctors are on an indefinitely long strike for the past two months paralysing healthcare in the entire province. They even stopped emergency treatment of serious patients.

Meanwhile, a patient in Sandeman Hospital died on Sunday due to the unavailability of medical assistance. The man identified as Sibgathullah was critically injured in a road accident and gave in to his injuries at the hospital.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 20^th, 2011.