Service structure: Young doctors back on roads, without a bang

Say they will carry out weekly protests until demands are met; turnover much lower this time around.

RAWALPINDI:

After a week-long hiatus, young doctors came out on the roads once again on Thursday in an effort to press the government to submit to their longstanding demands. The turnover of protesters, however, was much lower this time around.

The Young Doctors Association (YDA) held a protest outside the Benazir Bhutto Hospital and blocked the busy Benazir Bhutto Road for nearly one and half hours.

Just like last week, the Chandni Chowk Flyover was closed for traffic and all vehicles coming from Islamabad were diverted to the Rawal Road instead.

The doctors, carrying banners and placards, chanted slogans for implementation of a service structure, a demand they have been protesting for since the past 14 months. They also raised slogans against the government when news regarding their colleagues’ arrest in Lahore surfaced during the protest.

While talking to The Express Tribune, Dr Abbas Malik, YDA’s head at District Headquarters Hospital, said the association has decided to carry out weekly protests in major cities of Punjab to press the government. The “struggle”, he said, will continue until their demands are met.

When asked about the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) order against doctors’ strike, he said the YDA has no plan to go on strike and will keep attending patients.

Another doctor, while commenting on the issue, said that the slow pace of court proceedings is encouraging the government to turn a blind eye to their demands. The government has not held a meeting on the issue for two weeks, according to a media report.

YDA’s general council has also decided to call a province-wide sit-in on September 19, and hold a long march starting from major cities in Punjab and ending outside the Punjab Chief Minister’s Secretariat later.

YDA is the biggest of several doctors’ groups that are in talks with the government on service structure. The two sides were close to an agreement earlier. However, the government wanted the association to give up its demands for doctors to be inducted in grade 18, that they get guaranteed promotions after a certain period and a raised health professional allowance. The YDA general council decided not to compromise on these demands.

Earlier this year, YDA doctors went on strike at the outpatient departments of public hospitals. Later in July, the LHC instructed the doctors not to boycott their duties and set up a committee with representatives of the government and various doctors’ groups to negotiate a service structure deal. However, that has still not happened.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th, 2012.