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Thursday March 28, 2024

Patients continue to suffer on fifth day

By Amer Malik
August 06, 2017

LAHORE: The poor patients are being made to suffer greatly due to a wrangling between the Young Doctors Association (YDA) and the Punjab government.

Thousands of ailing persons were deprived of their basic right to healthcare because of a partial strike at the indoor and outdoor wards of hospitals across Punjab on the fifth consecutive day on Saturday.

The media persons became the latest target as angry young doctors at the Jinnah Hospital in Lahore attacked a female journalist and cameraman of Geo News and damaged their equipment and mobile phones.

“The young doctors pulled my headscarf, hurled abuses, damaged my mobile phone and TV camera and beat up our cameraman, M Rehan, with a steel rod only for covering the strike,” said Naveen Ali, Geo News report, in a statement after the incident. SP Ayesha Butt reached the hospital and defused the situation.

However, the YDA leadership claimed otherwise, saying that actually the administration goons attacked the media persons in Jinnah Hospital just to malign the young doctors and dent the ongoing strike in hospitals for their rightful demands.

“Dr Adnan, a senior YDA leader in Jinnah Hospital, was actually trying to save the media persons from the assault of administration’s goons, which is evident from the video clip of the incident,” said Dr Atif Chaudhry, vice president of YDA Punjab, in response to the allegations.

Meanwhile, Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education (SHC&ME) Department constituted a two-member committee comprising Prof Dr Asad Aslam Khan, professor of Ophthalmology/KEMU, Lahore, (convener) and Prof Dr Asghar Naqi, professor of surgery/KEMU, Lahore, (Member) to probe the incident of misbehaviour with the Geo News reporter and her team, and submit its report within three days.

Earlier, the YDA forcibly closed down outdoor wards of Services Hospital, the Punjab Institute of Cardiology and Jinnah Hospital on the fifth consecutive day on Saturday, where minor operations were postponed and healthcare services were affected at the indoor wards. The emergency wards are functioning without any disruption in all public sector hospitals across Punjab.

However, the young doctors at Mayo Hospital, Lady Wellington Hospital, Lady Aitchison Hospital, Punjab Dental Hospital, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore General Hospital, The Children’s Hospital, Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Kot Khawaja Saeed Hospital, Nawaz Sharif Hospital, Yakki Gate, Government Said Mitha Hospital, Government Shahdara Hospital, Gulab Devi Hospital in Lahore continued providing health services to the patients with occasional complaints of denial of services at the outdoor and indoor wards of these hospitals. However, the paramedics of Allied Health Organisation of Sheikh Zayed Hospital continued their strike on the 16th consecutive day on Saturday.

While the emergency departments of government hospitals in Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Gujrat, Gujranwala and Faisalabad remained open, patients visiting the OPDs and other wards suffered as a result of the strike.

The neutral doctors said the strike affected 20 per cent work in all hospitals. The private hospitals in the vicinity of teaching hospitals are also receiving those patients who can afford treatment facilities there.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the disciplinary committees, on the recommendations of Academic Councils of medical institutions, issued orders of termination from service of 66 young doctors including 41 House Officers (HOs), 14 Post-Graduate Residents (PGRs) and 11 Medical Officers (MOs) for violating the discipline and refusing to join their duties.

The Jinnah Hospital administration repatriated six MOs to SHC&ME for termination from service on charges of disrupting the healthcare services in emergency ward, operation theatres and the ICUs. They have been charged with endangering the lives of patients, hurling threats on doctors, abusing Medical Superintendent of the hospital and Secretary of SHC&ME.

Also, on the orders of a Sessions Court, a cross-FIR had been registered against 11 persons including three doctors of Jinnah Hospital i.e. Dr Shabbir, Dr Faisal and Dr Fahad, in a case of torture of visitors at cafeteria of Allama Iqbal Medical College a few weeks ago.

The JHL MS Dr Sohail Saqlain stated that services of 10 doctors were repatriated to the department on Saturday, taking the number of such doctors to 22 so far. It also deducted salaries of other doctors for the days they remained absent from duties without prior intimation.

He said that walk-in-interviews of new doctors would be conducted in Jinnah Hospital from 3pm to 5pm for appointment on ad-hoc basis.

The SHC&ME also issued transfer order of Dr Mahmoodul Hasan, MO at Services Hospital, and placed him at the disposal of Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department for closing emergency, indoor and outdoor services in Services Hospital from February 20 to 28, 2017.

It also issued orders of termination from service of five ad hoc MOs in Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital, Gujrat, for threatening the doctors and forcefully stopping work in the hospital.

This YDA is protesting for its main demand to withdraw the Central Induction Policy (CIP) and replace the Secretary SHC&ME for being a non-medical professional. The negotiations between the YDA and the SHC&ME have failed time and again as the former pressed for the acceptance of all their demands.