Safety first: Govt given a week to cough up policy on doctors’ security

Medical health associations threaten to boycott OPDs on November 26 if demands not met.

PESHAWAR:

Doctors associations set a seven-day deadline for the provincial government to devise a policy on abductions and other security threats faced by medical health professionals. If the deadline is not met by November 26, doctors will boycott outpatient departments (OPD).

Professional societies held a general body meeting under the umbrella of the Provincial Doctors Association (PDA) in Hayatabad Medical Complex on Monday. The participating associations included Malgari Doctoran, Islamic Medical Association, Muslim Doctors Association, People Doctors Forum and Insaf Doctors Forum.

At the meeting, doctors condemned the government’s silence over doctors being abducted.  They insisted it failed to provide protection even though practitioners have been targeted in the past in both Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.



They demanded authorities take decisive action in obtaining the release of Dr Kamran Amir Khan and Dr Mujahid Bangash. Dr Khan was employed at North West Hospital when he was abducted early October and Dr Bangash was serving as Frontier Region Peshawar Agency Surgeon when he was kidnapped in September.

“If the government does not meet our demands, we will boycott OPDs on November 26,” PDA Chairman Shah Sawar told The Express Tribune. All public sector hospital OPDs and private practices will be closed for that one day, he added.

According to Shah, the protesting doctors plan to establish ‘clinic camps’ within hospital premises where they will see patients on a private basis; not on behalf of the hospital.

As per the kidnapped doctors, he shared the associations have to decide on a future plan of action if the government fails in procuring their release.

Doctors also demanded a judicial enquiry – led by the Peshawar High Court chief justice – be ordered into the abductions to identify culprits and fix responsibility.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2013.