Solidarity: Young doctors call off protest over Shaukat Khanum colleagues

Association winds up protest camp outside SKMH&RC.

LAHORE: The Young Doctors’ Association (YDA) called off its protest and wound up a protest camp in front of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (SKMH&RC) after trainee doctors suspended at the hospital were accommodated at the Children’s Hospital.

YDA spokesperson Amir Bandasha announced the development while speaking to reporters. He said the doctors would be accommodated from the day of their suspension. Bandesha said the association had persuaded the hospital in this regard after the College of Physicians and Surgeons concurred with the arrangement. He said seats for oncology training at the pediatric ward of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre had been abolished by the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Bandesha said five medical officers, whose services had been terminated after being initially suspended in the Dr Shazia case, had joined other hospitals.



He said this had rendered the pediatric oncology ward of the SKMH&RC inoperative and enabled the oncology ward at the Children’s Hospital to resume operations. Bandesha said Dr Shazia could also be accommodated at the hospital. He said she planned to start a bone-marrow transplant centre at the hospital if she joined it.

Bandesha alleged that some of the senior doctors from the SKMH&RC had earlier tried to prevail on officials from the College of Physicians and Surgeons to ensure that the sacked doctors were not accommodated at Children’s Hospital. He said the association would continue its boycott of SKMH&RC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Faisal Sultan and Medical Director Asim Yousaf.

SKMH&RC Media Assistant Manger Naseel rejected the association’s claims regarding the pediatric oncology ward being inoperative. He said two foreign-qualified pediatric oncologists and a child specialist were working at the hospital. Naseel refused to comment over the YDA’s assertion regarding seats for oncology training being abolished at the hospital by the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2014.