Doctors warned against misbehaving with patients

QUETTA: A lawmaker of the Balochistan Assembly has expressed her displeasure over complaints that doctors working in government hospitals in the remote areas of the province were misbehaving with poor patients.

“Such behaviour won’t be tolerated,” MPA Zeenat Shahwani of the Balochistan National Party told a delegation which called on her on Sunday. “Legal action will be taken against such doctors,” she added.

Last month, hundreds of patients in the provincial capital of Balochistan faced immense difficulties as doctors went on a strike to lodge their protest against an attack on a senior physician.

“Doctors go on a strike every month and it causes us a lot of inconvenience because we can’t bear the expenses of private hospitals,” Abdul Rehman, a patient from Mastung, told The Express Tribune.

“Unfortunately, our doctors prefer running their practice at private hospitals,” he added.

Earlier this year, the provincial health department imposed a ban on private practice by government doctors in the morning, while also deciding to deduct salaries of those remaining absent from the general out-patient departments (OPDs).

It asked all deputy commissioners, medical superintendents and district health officers to take departmental action against doctors violating the department’s instructions.