Patients suffer as strike at ATH enters 5th day

ABBOTTABAD: The strike called by the Grand Health Alliance (GHA) consisting of doctors, nurses; paramedics and other employees at the Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH) has entered in 5th consecutive day on Monday where all the allied health services including OPDs remained suspended and patients across Hazara faced hardship.

All the wards, operation theatres (OTs) and out-patient departments (OPDs), remained closed due to the ongoing strike. Only emergency service is being provided to patients. Patients, especially those coming from distant places of division, have been facing difficulties due to the strike.

According to the doctors, their protest would continue until the fulfilment of all of their demands including elimination of board of governors including chairman.The spokesman for the Grand Health Alliance of the Ayub Teaching Hospital has vowed to continue their strike until acceptance of their demand.

The hospital administration and protesting doctors with allied services are sticking to their guns and the main sufferers are the poor patients of the one of the leading government hospitals in the Hazara division which also provide healthcare services to the patients from the Gilgit-Baltistan Areas and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

At the same time, the flow of the patients has increased at the District Headquarters Hospital and the Women and Children Hospital due to which the patients as well as the staff are facing a host of problems.

Hundreds of patients are suffering due to the ongoing strike of the doctors and paramedic staff including sanitation staff. The entire hospital is giving a deserted look as a heap of garbage is lying. The health authorities in KP seem to be least bothered to sort out the issues and end the miseries of the patients.

The officials from hospital administration while talking to media said that they had invited the protesting doctors and others for negotiations but they did not get any positive response from them.

The Grand Health Alliance at the Ayub Medical Complex Abbottabad has demanded the dissolution of the Board of Governors (BoG) of the Ayub Teaching Hospital, saying the chairman of BoG had completed two tenures and was sticking to his position.

They also alleged corruption of more than one billion rupees in ‘unnecessary’ construction, purchase of MRI, angiography and other equipment while making illegal appointments of their blued-eyed people in senior positions.