K & P

Mission accomplished: Doctors call off protest after meeting health secretary

One of their demands has been met; further details about talks to be revealed today.

Our Correspondent January 12, 2015

Doctors had also forwarded their recommendations for the HCC. However, the relevant authorities had not considered their recommendations which led doctors to take to the streets. STOCK IMAGE

PESHAWAR: Doctors have called off their protest following a meeting on Monday with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) health secretary, office bearers of the Provincial Doctors Association (PDA) told The Express Tribune.

According to PDA members, the health secretary has agreed to keep Post Graduate Medical Institute (PGMI) an autonomous institution. However, some of its rules are likely to be streamlined. Furthermore, its senior registrar will be included in the teaching cadre and the role of the head of the department and principal will be decided by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council.

Further details about the talks will be revealed on Tuesday (today), the PDA members added.

Doctors have been protesting against the proposed Health Care Commission Bill 2015 which was tabled in the provincial assembly last week.

They criticised the provincial government for not taking them onboard before annulling the Health Regulatory Authority (HRA) and warned to agitate if the proposed law was enacted.

According to PDA member Amir Taj, the talks were held at the K-P Assembly building and gave doctors the opportunity to voice their reservations about health sector reforms.

“Doctors claim that the negotiations were successful and we have decided to call off the strike,” he added.

The meeting was held amid widespread protests in the provincial capital. Doctors had boycotted operation theatres, out-patient departments and other wards at various teaching hospitals.

The provincial government decided in November 2014 to replace the HRA with the Health Care Commission (HCC).

Since then, PDA officials had voiced concern over handing control of the PGMI to the provincial health secretary. They feared PGMI will lose its autonomous status and the government will admit blue-eyed people for specialisation courses.

Doctors had also forwarded their recommendations for the HCC. However, the relevant authorities had not considered their recommendations which led doctors to take to the streets.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2015.