PESHAWAR: The trainee doctors of Khyber Medical College (KMC) on Monday turned violent and damaged infrastructure and smashed windowpanes of the college and its adjacent tertiary care hospital, Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) during a protest over seats for the House Officers. The trainee doctors took to the main University Road and blocked it for traffic after they developed differences with the hospital administration over accommodation of all graduates of the KMC in the KTH. The road blockade caused hardships to hundreds of commuters. They were seen physically scuffling with the young protesting doctors after their refusal to open the road. A female doctor suffered injuries and was taken to KTH for treatment. Though the protesting doctors blamed the police for baton-charging them and injuring the female doctor, the hospital administration as well as the police denied having used force against the protesters. Eyewitnesses told The News that the police were called but they didn’t use force though the protesting doctors kept the road blocked for more than an hour. The doctors later entered the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) and started damaging everything in sight. “They didn’t care for the public property and smashed windowpanes,” an official of the hospital told The News. The protesting doctors then went to the administration block and besieged the office of the hospital director. “The hospital director along with other officials locked themselves in the office to remain safe but the doctors broke the main door and entered the office. They used abusive language but didn’t physically hit the medical director and others,” the official added. After causing serious damage to the KTH administration block in KTH, the doctors went to KMC and damaged its infrastructure for no obvious reasons. When reached by telephone, Prof Dr Nadim Khawar, Medical Director of the KTH, told The News that some young doctors were not happy to be accommodated at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) for their training and wanted to be adjusted at the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC). “Actually, there are 149 seats each in KTH and LRH and 76 in HMC for training of the doctors. We interviewed 138 doctors for the seats available at the KTH and left 10 for the doctors of supplementary examination. Out of 76 seats, 34 were interviewed for HMC and 53 in LRH. Only five or six doctors have been left out and we wanted to accommodate them in the LRH but they insisted that they should be adjusted in the HMC,” he explained. Prof Nadim Khawar and other officials of the hospital held talks with the young doctors and promised to resolve the issue through mutual understanding with the HMC administration. A senior official of the KTH told The News that a delegation of the doctors was sent to the HMC for holding meeting with the administration there when another group started spreading rumours that the HMC administration refused to accommodate them. Soon afterwards, the doctors were out on the street staging protest, blocking the road and eventually going on a rampage in the KTH. Provincial Secretary Health Mushtaq Jadoon later took notice of the issue and formed an inquiry committee to probe the matter. “These trainee medical doctors are solely responsible for taking the law into their hands for which they must be punished. Instead of blocking the road and causing damage to the public institutions, they should have used other forums including my office to find solution to their problem,” Mushtaq Jadoon told The News. He said these people don’t deserve to be even called doctors as they attacked the same institution where they were given medical education free of cost.
