Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital to open for two days

Protesting doctors call off their strike amid a meeting of K-P chief minister and Doctors’ Council tomorrow

PESHAWAR: The protesting doctors of Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital on Monday called off their strike for two days after which Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) is now open on Monday and Tuesday.

K-P Doctors’ Council on Monday said the decision was made after considering the problems being faced by the patients.

Doctors' protest enters third day in K-P

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan is also expected to hold a meeting with the representatives of K-P Doctors’ Council on Tuesday to discuss their grievances.

“We believe in dialogue. We respect the chief minister’s offer for talks and this is why we will go and meet him,” said K-P Doctors’ Council in a statement.

However, the council made sure it would not tolerate the participation of provincial health minister in the meeting.

“We will resume our duties on Monday (today) and Tuesday at LRH but the doctors will continue their strike peacefully in remaining hospitals of K-P,” said the statement.

Meanwhile, K-P Doctors’ Council also threatened the dialogue process could discontinue if the government or police took any action against the doctors.

“We feel the patients are facing problems because of the strike but we will not tolerate any kind of torture on doctors and privatisation of hospitals under any condition,” added K-P Doctors’ Council.

The issue came to a head on May 14 when during a high-level meeting, Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) Surgery Assistant Professor Dr Ziauddin Afridi clashed with LRH Board of Governors Chairman Dr Nawsherwan Burki after the latter to refused to hear the former.

Nurses refuse to attend patients at LRH

Dr Afridi then allegedly hurled some eggs at Dr Burki and a scuffle ensued. Later, the K-P Health Minister Dr Hisham Inamullah Khan and some of his guards allegedly cornered Dr Afridi in the KTH corridor and beat him up. It prompted a protest by the doctors against the high-handedness of the provincial minister and sought Dr Hisham and Dr Burki’s resignation.

Subsequently, doctors boycotted their duties at the OPDs of hospitals across the province.