Health dept warning: ‘Strike would violate SC instructions’

Health Department has urged the YDA not to go on strike over the handling of the tainted drugs disaster at the PIC

LAHORE: The Health Department has urged the Young Doctors Association (YDA) not to go on strike over the handling of the tainted drugs disaster at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), warning that doing so would be a violation of Supreme Court orders. A Health Department spokesman said that the Supreme Court had ordered all doctors and pharmaceutical firms to cooperate with the investigation into the deaths of over a hundred people due to contaminated IsoTab pills. The spokesman said that the Supreme Court had ruled that any strike by doctors was a violation of patients’ fundamental rights. Those going on strike would not just be violating medical ethics, but also committing contempt of court, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2012.