At a press conference on Monday, the Young Doctors Association (Punjab) announced it would go ahead with its plan to surround the Chief Minister’s Secretariat on November 7.
Addressing the press conferences, YDA spokesperson Dr Nasir Bokhari said that doctors from across the province would gather at Services Hospital on Tuesday night (today). He said the sit-in in front of the CM’s Secretariat would be staged at 11am. He said public hospitals would continue to function as per routine during the sit-in.
Dr Wasim, president of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital chapter of YDA, said the protest demonstration would be peaceful as long as none of the doctors was arrested. In case of any arrests or attempts to arrests, he said, the doctors would be forced to adopt a more aggressive posture. He said bureaucrats would no longer get protocol at any public hospital. The doctors would examine and treat them in the wards, but not in private rooms.
Reacting to the press conference, Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafique said that the doctors should not cause inconvenience for poor patients. He said the government had already accepted several YDA demands.
“Considering negotiations are in process between the doctors and the government, the YDA should shun such baseless criticism of the government,” he said.
Separately, in a meeting with a YDA delegation on Monday, nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan said the problems faced by young doctors who worked up to 12 hours a day had not been presented the right light.
“The YDA has been struggling for doctors’ rights for the last two years. Meanwhile, the government has been cutting health budget in the name of reform,” he said.
Dr Khan said that only one per cent of the country’s budget was being spent on health. He said the doctors were only demanding a just service structure. He urged the government to revisit its priorities and said that leaving poor patients at the mercy of private hospitals was not good governance.
Agreeing with the doctors’ complaints that negligence on the provision of medicine at hospitals in time caused many deaths, Dr Khan urged the government to immediately announce an improved service structure for doctors. He also asked the young doctors to continue the treatment of patients during their protest.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 6th, 2012.
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