YDA Punjab calls for roadside protests

Rawalpindi
The Young Doctors Association (YDA), Punjab Chapter, has given a call for roadside protests all across the province on Thursday (tomorrow) announcing that the series of protests would continue till the Punjab government fulfils demands of the young doctors.
The YDA Punjab has also called for a strike at the hospitals’ outpatient departments on Thursday in the province asking the young doctors to block major roads in Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujrat, Rawalpindi, DG Khan, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Sargodha and other cities of the province to record their protest.
The Young Doctors Association Benazir Bhutto Hospital has announced to join hands with the YDA Punjab in the protest on Thursday while putting additional demands before the BBH administration for resolution of problems being faced by the young doctors and patients locally at the BBH.
It is important that the young doctors observed strike in hospitals’ OPDs on March 31 and blocked major roads in the province particularly in Lahore and Faisalabad on the call of YDA Punjab after that the chief minister’s advisor on health Khawaja Salman Rafiq met with representatives of the YDA Punjab and started dialogue to look into the matter.
The dialogue between YDA Punjab and the government has started last week, however, it has yet not yielded any fruitful outcome, said Information Secretary of YDA BBH Dr Muhammad Waqas Ilyas while talking to ‘The News’ on Tuesday.
He added the YDA has decided to continue recording protests in public till fulfilment of their demands. Terming the demands of YDA rightful, he said the YDA is demanding the Punjab government to implement promotions and service structure as was approved by it in November 2012 and increase paid post graduate trainees slots along with induction of doctors in grade 18 by implementing revision of pay scales of doctors and increase in salaries of Medical Officers, Post-Graduate trainees and House Officers as was promised by it in 2012.
The YDA Punjab has also been demanding the government to resolve the promotions and other issues of young doctors in dental cadre and should affiliate Post Graduate Medical Institute Sheikh Zayed Hospital Lahore with the University of Health Sciences. The YDA has also demanded paid house jobs for medical graduates of private institutions and foreign graduates who, according to the YDA, are forced to do unpaid house jobs while paid seats for house jobs are lying vacant throughout the province.
Dr. Waqas said the YDA BBH fully supports the stance of YDA Punjab and will arrange a protest on Benazir Bhutto Road on Thursday though the young doctors would not block it completely as the commuter on it have already been facing problems for months due to on-going construction work. He added that the YDA BBH has put additional demands before the Punjab government and local administration asking them to resolve local issues that include poor security of the hospital due to shortage and lack of trained security staff.
He said the shortage of lower staff and non-availability of sub-specialties and supra-specialties in BBH and the allied hospitals are causing poor quality of patient care. The YDA BBH also demands the government to increase bed strength of BBH to 1200 and increase the seats of doctors and number of departments to minimize the extraordinary burden that the young doctors have been facing, he said.
Dr. Waqas said the YDA BBH has asked the government to resolve issues of delay in installation of CT Scan and out of order ventilators and dialysis units at the hospital. The installation of CT scan has been delayed for nearly six months while seven out of 10 ventilators are out of order in the ICU, he said.