Medical meltdown: Doctors to strike across Punjab from Monday

Health Dept official says in contact with YDA, waiting for ‘justifiable demands’.

LAHORE:

Doctors on strike at the outpatient departments (OPDs) in the city’s public hospitals for the last few days have announced that they will expand their boycott to the rest of the Punjab on Monday.

“The OPDs of all public hospital across the province will remain closed from Monday if the government doesn’t withdraw its decision,” said Young Doctors Association Punjab spokesman Dr Nasir Bokhari, referring to the Health Department’s transfer orders for some 450 doctors.

Asked to comment on the YDA’s announcement, a senior Health Department official said that the government was in talks with the doctors and was trying to reach a compromise with them. “We’re waiting for them to present justifiable demands,” he said.

Briefing

Dr Bokhari, speaking to reporters at Services Hospital, said YDA members would, during the strike, “examine patients at their hostels” out of goodwill.

“We will not let the OPDs work but we are familiar with the problems of patients and will strengthen emergency wards,” he said.

Asked why the YDA was pushing the boycott when the Supreme Court, during the hearing of a case last year, had urged doctors not to go on strike as it endangered lives, Dr Bokhari said that doctors had a right to protest and the courts could not deprive them of the right.

The YDA also plans a sit-in across the province on April 25 (Wednesday) if the government doesn’t withdraw the transfers, he said.

He slammed the government and particularly the Health Department at the press briefing at Services Hospital, itself a government facility.

“This whole mess has resulted from the absence of a proper service structure for doctors.

Had there been a proper service structure, the 691 new doctors could easily have been accommodated without transferring a single doctor,” Dr Bokhari said.

Previously, the Health Department said it had ordered the transfers because it needed to accommodate 691 new doctors selected by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC).

The YDA spokesman said that the transfers targeted YDA members and were aimed at weakening the association.

“We will not budge an inch from our stance, come what may,” said YDA Punjab President Dr Hamid Butt.

YDA Multan President Dr Mazhar, YDA Rawalpindi President Dr Umar and officials from other YDA chapters also attended the briefing.

Dr Khuzaima Arslan Bokhari, a YDA core member, told The Express Tribune that the government had contacted the association to end their standoff but there had been no breakthrough.

“We are not protesting or fighting for individuals,” he said. “We are fighting for the interests of the whole medical community. We want an appropriate service structure and are ready to assist the government in devising one. They haven’t done anything in this regard for six decades.”

The YDA Pakistan supported the strike call, saying that the Health Department had “violated policy” by ordering 450 doctors transferred to accommodate new ones.

YDA Pakistan President Dr Rana Sohail said that in 2010, the PPSC had hired 700 new doctors and they were posted to hospitals in the Punjab without any transfers. He said that the department should have followed this precedent and not issued any transfer orders this time.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2012.