Govt claims strike called off, doctors says it’s on
Conflicting reports about the young doctors’ strike in Punjab emerged on Wednesday. While the Punjab government claimed the strike had been called off, the Young Doctors Associations’ (YDA) Punjab chapter denied any such development.
Talking to reporters after a two-hour meeting with senior professors, principals and representatives of the Medical Teachers Association (MTA) on Wednesday, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah claimed the YDA had called off its strike, adding that all detained doctors will be released and cases against them withdrawn. The minister added that senior doctors had guaranteed the striking doctors will resume their out-patient department (OPD), indoor department and emergency duties.
An official statement by the Punjab government read, “YDA’s strike has been called off and all doctors shall resume duties in their respective hospitals forthwith. The doctors under detention are being released immediately.”
YDA Punjab office-bearers meanwhile claimed the strike had not been called off.
“We will resume our duties… when our fellow doctors return from jails. The strike at the OPDs and indoor departments will continue till we win a new service structure,” YDA Lahore spokesperson Dr Aftab told The Express Tribune.
Dr Mudassir Razzaq Khan, a YDA General Council member, who has been terminated from his service, echoed the same remarks.
“The strike has not been called off. We will resume duties… after the release of all doctors, the revocation of FIRs, and the cancellation of terminations and transfers,” he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, senior doctors criticised the government for arresting young doctors. A meeting of the Shaikh Zayed Hospital faculty members condemned police torture on the arrested doctors. They demanded cases against doctors be quashed and all arrested doctors be freed soon. They also sided with young doctors on the service structure issue and said treatments to patients would be provided despite all the demands. Senior doctors of Lahore General Hospital also demanded the release of young doctors in a joint resolution. They said they could not work without young doctors at the hospitals.
The MTA of the Services Hospital also held its general body meeting, condemning the crackdown against doctors. The meeting demanded the unconditional release of all detained doctors. It also demanded that unconditional apology tendered by 24 doctors should not be advertised as it defamed other doctors.
Meanwhile, a Health Department official said the Punjab government had talked to private hospitals regarding the accommodation of poor patients. He said Medical Superintendents of teaching hospitals had been authorised to recruit 50 house officers each.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 5th, 2012.
COMMENTS (9)
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place of the shehbaz sharif is like a father of nation.pleas......have a reasonable talk with the doctors.please turn off strike .don,t play politics with the lives of people.please hold down the litrate people of the country,don,t show third class behavior with any of the protests.
This issue is being mishandled by Shahbaz Sharif and it will come back to haunt him at election time. He is dealing with Doctors as if they were criminals and he a lohaar! The way Sharifs handle “troublesome” people is to attack the Supreme Court, throw doctors in jail, have danda bardaar nawalas attack/burn opponents homes (where are all those loadshedding protestors who have mysteriously disappeared and for whom police action was forbidden despite destroying public/private property)? Having said that, doctors are being condemned unheard and being called criminals. Why your newspapers not interviewing YDA doctors are are presenting their side of the story. We want to know their demands and all legitimate demands need to be accepted. It is not as if they are demanding batman, DHA plot, agricultural land, cushy job in CMH, free education for children, overseas trips and training as in case of Army doctors.
Express tribune should not upload comments like the first in the list written by iconoclastic. This is contempt of court to give such remarks about honourable courts of Pakistan. Punjab government has already provided reasonable raise to young doctors.
Young doctors are our brothers and sisters. They should feel their responsibility and resume duties at the earliest. They should feel the miseries of poor patients. Allah bless Pakistan.
May Allah show the right path to young doctors. They are demanding too much at the start of their career. They should give up their greed and serve the patients. They are already getting much better package which has already been revised by Punjab Government.
It is unsurprising what the media is doing. The media is talking all about doctors’ selfishness. What you have to remember is that actually we have to protect the rights of our patients not only currently, but in the future, making sure we attract the highest calibre of doctors into the profession.