Doctors’ strike: Wards closed across Punjab as talks finally start

Professors join junior colleagues in boycotting outpatient departments.

LAHORE:

The outpatient departments (OPDs) of public hospitals across the province were closed on Monday as senior doctors joined their junior colleagues in a strike called by the Young Doctors Association (YDA).

This was the fourth day of the strike in Lahore, but the first in the rest of the province. Patients were left unattended in the OPDs as there wasn’t anybody to examine them.

“This has never happened before. Even the professors weren’t willing to come to OPDs,” said a senior faculty member at King Edward Medical University and a professor at Mayo Hospital who did not go to work on Monday either.

He said that professors were either backing the YDA or scared of it. “In either case, the problems for the Health Department are going to aggravate,” he said.

The professor said that the YDA had struck a popular rallying cry in its demand for reforms to the service structure for doctors employed by the government. “When they were just protesting against the transfers of doctors not many were interested, but now they are speaking about an issue relevant to everybody in the medical community,” he said.

YDA officials said that the strike had been successful across the province. “The OPDs at all public hospitals remained closed in Rawalpindi to protest against the illegal transfers [of 450 doctors] and the service structure,” YDA Rawalpindi President Dr Umar said.

Doctors held a demonstration against the Health Department and boycotted OPDs in Multan, said Dr Mazhar, the association’s Multan president.

YDA Punjab office bearers met with senior Health Department officials for talks but there was no breakthrough. “We are in contact with the Health Department now but so far we haven’t reached an agreement and there is no likelihood of calling off the strike,” said YDA Punjab spokesman Dr Nasir Bokhari. “The strike across the province has been successful and if the Health Department doesn’t accept our demands we will keep going.”

YDA Pakistan General Secretary Dr Salman Kazmi said that if the Health Department didn’t withdraw its transfer orders then the association might consider calling a nationwide strike.

A senior Health Department official said they were “hopeful” that the strike would end soon. Chief Minister’s Adviser on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique said talks with YDA office bearers would be held today to end the strike.

“We will end this strike soon,” he said.

Meanwhile in Sargodha, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said that doctors should not go on strike as it could result in tragedy. He said that the Punjab government had spent billions of rupees – Rs8 billion this fiscal year  on the welfare and improvement of the service structure of doctors, nurses and paramedical staff.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2012.