Awaiting remuneration: Provincial Doctors Association threaten to hold strike

Vows to stand by ad hoc doctors, demand payment of arrears

PESHAWAR: The Provincial Doctors Association (PDA) has threatened to protest if the government does not pay the arrears of ad hoc doctors and provide them with a permanent job structure.

According to a press release issued on Sunday, PDA’s Dr Salim Yousafzai flayed the provincial government for not paying salaries to over 500 ad hoc doctors for the last eight months. “It is the legal right of doctors to be paid for the services they have been hired for,” read the press statement. “PDA will stand up for their rights.”

It added members of the association have asked the K-P government to immediately issue a notification to remunerate ad hoc doctors before Eidul Fitr.



“If these demands are not met, PDA will begin a province-wide strike,” stated the press release. “We will close down hospitals across K-P, including the district headquarters hospitals and basic health units.”

Free of cost

Doctors have also criticised the government for failing to provide free health facilities to patients at government hospitals.

According to the press statement, Yousafzai said the government has failed to provide free health care facilities over the last two years.

“Free health care is not the only issue at hospitals,” the statement quoted Yousafzai as saying. “There is also a lack of doctors to treat patients.”

The PDA member urged the government to appoint orthopaedic doctors, surgeons, cardiologists, neurosurgeons and other specialists at district and regional headquarters hospitals. Furthermore, Yousafzai said all hospitals should be equipped with machines for MRI, CT scan and digital X-rays.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2015.