They held a seminar-cum-protest meeting at the hospital. The meet-up was the first of 16 protest demonstrations the YDA says it would stage in a month.
The protesters from YDA Punjab’s Lahore organisation later blocked Usmani Road in front of the hospital for an hour before dispersing peacefully.
YDA leader Amir Bandesha said the government had not fully implemented a draft reached between the government and the YDA in November 2012. He said more seminars and protest demonstrations would be arranged at 19 hospitals in Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur and Gujrat.
YDA Punjab president Chaudhry Ajmal said the government had agreed to the draft on November 7, 2012. He said that at that time nearly 4,000 doctors who had five years of experience or more were to be promoted to grade 18.
He said nearly 5,000 doctors had not been promoted after 20 years of service.
“It has been two years since the government agreed to promote them. We will continue to protest until our demands are met.”
Ajmal said postgraduate doctors should be paid during training.
During a conference of health executive district officers on Tuesday, Health Secretary Jawad Raffique Malik had said that the Finance Department had approved a summary for the creation of 7,500 new seats.
He said a departmental promotion committee would meet on January 15 to discuss promotion of doctors from grade 17 to 18. He said those meeting the eligibility criteria would be promoted to grade 20. Health Department spokesman Ikhlaq Ali Khan said the government was committed to working for the welfare of doctors.
“They should wait for their promotion. We have devised a roadmap for the purpose.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 17th, 2014.
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