Traffic mess as young doctors hit the roads, again

Benazir Bhutto Road blocked for two hours, traffic diverted to Rawal Road.

RAWALPINDI/ PESHAWAR:

Young doctors working at the three allied hospitals in Rawalpindi blocked the busiest road in the city on Wednesday to protest against the Punjab government for failing to keep its promise.

The doctors gathered outside the Benazir Bhutto Hospital at 11am and blocked the Benazir Bhutto Road for over two hours, choking the traffic artery and causing trouble for commuters.

The Chandni Chowk Flyover was closed for traffic and all vehicles coming from Islamabad were diverted to the Rawal Road instead. The protest had been arranged by the Young Doctors Association (YDA).

The doctors, carrying banners and placards, chanted slogans against the Punjab chief minister and health secretary. They demanded immediate implementation of service structure and nullification of a murder case against four doctors at Mayo Hospital in Lahore.

“The Punjab chapter of YDA has decided to carry out rallies in all major cities to protest non-implementation of service structure despite getting orders from the Lahore High Court three months back,” said Dr Junaid Abbasi, a spokesperson for YDA Rawalpindi.

He said the doctors had followed court orders by attending patients and not observing any strike but their right to protest cannot be taken away. “A majority of doctors have been in the same grade for years and without service structure they will never get their rights,” he added.

K-P chapter demands service structure

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Young Doctors’ Association (K-P YDA) are also seeking a new service structure, like their counterparts in Punjab.

A general body meeting of YDA was held at Khyber Teaching Hospital on Wednesday to chalk out a new strategy to get the service structure that they want. Doctors from all major hospitals participated in the meeting.

They passed a unanimous resolution, demanding the implementation of a proposed service structure across K-P under which the government should make four different cadres, general, special, teaching and health management, to facilitate all health professionals.

They also proposed that all doctors be recruited on a permanent basis through the Public Service Commission on regular basis for all cadres and that all doctors be recruited in BPS-18 or above.

Some of their other demands are that seniority be determined from the date of postgraduation and not from the date of joining the government service. The doctors have also proposed to provide security, increase in salaries, provision of all facilities available to armed forces, residential facility, arrangement of at one international and two national conferences by government, transport facility, provision of interest free loan to all regular doctors working in BPS-18 and 19.

Alamgir Khan Yousafzai, K-P YDA president, said that spending years in Grade-17 is not fair to them and they would not accept any appointment in the same grade.

“We will submit the proposed service structure to the government this week and will give them a month’s deadline to finalise it,” Dr Alamgir said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2012.