KKH blocked to protest suspension of healthcare services

ABBOTTABAD: Protesters blocked the Karakoram Highway (KKH) for an hour to protest suspension of healthcare services at the Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH) due to the strike of paramedics for the last three days.
They also criticised the provincial Health Department, which failed to bring an end to the strike, causing hardships to thousands of patients, who had come from far-off areas of the province for treatment.
Hundreds of patients and their attendants took to the streets after the paramedics refused to provide health facilities at the ATH. They chanted slogans against the government.The paramedics from all over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been on strike for the last three days. They want promotion and service structure.
The strike has multiplied the problems of the patients, including women and children. The paramedics have closed the Out-Patient Department (OPD), laboratories, ECG, Echo machines, physiotherapy, CT Scan and MRI machines in the hospital.
Earlier, the doctors at the ATH boycotted OPD for three days after developing differences with local administration over some issue.Except emergency, the paramedics suspended services at the tertiary care hospital, which has annoyed the patients. The patients waiting to be operated on also suffered due to the strike.
Long queues of vehicles were seen on both sides of the road. Later, the protesters dispersed peacefully and re-opened the road to traffic. A patient, Zareen Khan, criticised the provincial government for solving the woes of the patients. Another patient, Zaman Khan, said that no patient could get his ECG due to the strike while eco and angiography machines were also out of order at ATH.