Doctors’ strike: Get back to work at all wards, court tells YDA

LHC suspends show cause, suspension and termination notices served on doctors.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has instructed government-employed doctors to return to work at all hospital wards and end their strike completely from Sunday, while also suspending termination, suspension and show cause notices issued to the striking doctors by the Punjab government.

The court also directed the committee set up to review the doctors’ demands to start negotiations with the Young Doctors Association (YDA) and conclude them within two weeks, while regularly updating the LHC on the minutes of committee meetings.

On Friday, Justice Ijazul Ahsan of the LHC had directed the doctors to “show good will by calling off the strike immediately and commencing work at emergencies at 9am on Saturday”.

Members of the YDA have been boycotting their jobs at outpatient departments at public hospitals since June 18. They expanded the strike to include emergency wards earlier this month after the Punjab government adopted a more aggressive approach to try and end it.

While the YDA took Friday’s order to mean they could continue with their strike at wards other than emergency care, Justice Ahsan made clear in Saturday’s order that he expected the doctors to return to work at all wards from 8pm on Sunday.

Asked by reporters outside the courtroom if the YDA would now end its strike, YDA Punjab President Dr Hamid Butt and General Secretary Dr Sohail Nasir said that this would be decided at a meeting of the YDA’s general council.

Muhammad Azhar Siddiqui, counsel for the petitioners who had challenged the strike in the LHC, said that the YDA representatives’ statement was tantamount to contempt of court. He said that he would file a contempt plea on Monday against the doctors if they did not return to work.

Harassment and contempt

In Saturday’s proceedings, YDA counsel Advocate Raja Zulqarnain said that the government was continuing to harass the young doctors despite the court’s unambiguous instructions on Friday to desist. He said that doctors had been served show cause and termination notices after Friday’s proceedings, which showed the government’s contempt for the court orders.

Additional Advocate General Faisal Zaman rejected the charge, saying that the show cause notices and termination letters had been issued to the doctors on Friday morning, before the court gave its directions.

He argued that all the actions taken by the government were lawful under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Act. He said after the court’s orders, the health secretary had issued a notification mentioning the LHC order and forwarded it to the home secretary, the Lahore police chief and other departments concerned.

Justice Ahsan asked the YDA counsel to file a separate petition against the alleged harassment. He gave the YDA president time to detail the allegedly illegal actions taken by the government against the protesting doctors.

The judge assured the doctors that the court would not allow any illegal action. He said that the doctors’ demands for a revised service structure were not unreasonable.

Zaman argued that the service structure matter was before the Supreme Court and the LHC should await its verdict. He said a committee set up by the SC had already proposed a service structure.

About the murder case against several doctors at Mayo Hospital over the death of a child, Advocate Zulqernain said that the government had passed the Punjab Healthcare Commission Act in 2010 under which the police could not register murder cases against doctors until the matter was referred to the commission. He said a case could only be registered against doctors under Section 322 (manslaughter).

But Zaman argued that Section 322 applied only if a patient died while receiving medical treatment. In this case, he said, the infant died because he was denied medical treatment.

He said that the child had been buried without an autopsy but the police would exhume the body to determine cause of death. On the request of the father, the judge ordered the government to set up a medical board to supervise the exhumation process and the post-mortem. The court also directed the investigating officer to submit a challan by Monday against the doctors involved in the murder case.

Representatives of the Young Doctors Association were asked in court if they would end their strike completely if the arrested doctors were released. They were unable to give a definitive answer on this.

The judge directed the assistant advocate general to present arguments on why a murder case had been registered against the doctors when the hearing resumes on July 13. He asked the YDA counsel to file a separate petition for the cancellation of the murder FIR.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2012.