Doctors extend protest to largest public sector hospital

PESHAWAR: The doctors on Thursday extended their ongoing protest to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s largest public sector hospital - Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) - by suspending services at the out-patient departments (OPDs) and partially affecting other functions there.

Besides LRH, the doctors continued to protest in other public sector hospitals of the province and kept all services suspended. The KP government had issued a notification three days ago and declared health as essential services and banned all types of leave of the doctors for three months. But it didn’t deter the doctors as they not only continued their strike but extended their protest to the LRH. “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is pleased to direct that all persons working or engaged in the public sector health establishments including the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Medical Teaching Institutions, imparting services in the administrative, curative, rehabilitative, preventive, promotive, and supportive services, partially or fully funded from the general exchequer and are under direct or indirect control of the government, shall not depart or leave their place of duty without prior permission of the competent authority and shall not abandon or discontinue their official duties in the best public interest for a period of three months from the date of issuance of this order,” it was stated in the notification. The government had warned it would take action against those violating the order under the West Pakistan Essential Services (maintenance) Act 1958. In the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), the protesting doctors earlier in the morning forcibly shut OPDs but the consultants later arrived and started providing services there when the agitating doctors left the two hospitals.

The hospital authorities had called the police for maintaining order and providing security to the doctors in OPDs. In KTH and HMC, the protest didn’t affect surgical procedures and other services were provided to the indoor and outdoor patients. Most of the protesting doctors later gathered in LRH where the hospital administration had also deployed police but didn’t use them when a large number of protesting doctors went to the OPD block and forced the doctors on suspending services.The doctors in LRH had attended OPDs till 10 am but could not resist before the protesting doctors shut the OPDs. The hospital administration planned to ensure availability of the doctors recruited under the Medical Teaching Institution (MTI) law when other doctors had announced two days ago to boycott of duties. However, the hospital administration failed in executing their plan, it managed to ensure most of the surgeries to be done. The protesting doctors after marching through the LRH took out a rally and then staged a protest outside the KP Assembly building.

Opposition leader in the assembly Akram Khan Durrani later came out and joined them. He supported the protesting and endorsed their demands, saying the PTI government and particularly Dr Nausherwan Burki had destroyed the public sector hospitals. “This man Dr Burki is running the entire health sector in KP through remote control from America. He has destroyed our hospitals and it is shocking to note that the majority of senior doctors are quitting jobs due to their wrong policies,” Akram Durrani said while addressing the protesting doctors. Almost all associations of the doctors in the province, including Provincial Doctors Association (PDA), Malgari Doctoran, Muslim Doctors Forum (MDF), Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA), People’s Doctors Forum (PDF), trainee medical officers (TMOs) and civil servants started protest against the proposed health law by giving autonomy to the regional health services.

Interestingly, Insaf Doctors Forum (IDF), an association of the doctors affiliated with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is also part of the protesting doctors. Majority of doctors belonging to IDF had been given jobs in LRH, KTH and HMC and elsewhere in the province on the basis of their influence. The PTI government in KP has planned to introduce new laws in the health sector and give autonomy to the district and regional health services. Like the Medical Teaching Institution Reforms Act (MTI Act 2015), the government wanted to extend it to the district and Tehsil level hospitals. The government has proposed DHAs for district headquarters hospitals and RHAs for rural health services and basic health units. It sent a wave of concern among the doctors as the government decided to send the doctors to their native areas as per their domicile after completion of postgraduate training in different specialities. Most of the doctors don’t want to be transferred to peripheries and prefer to work in Peshawar and other major cities.

Meanwhile, KP Health Minister Dr Hisham Inamullah convened a meeting of administrators of all the teaching hospitals and DHOs and announced to lodge FIRs against the doctors who remained absent from duties and held protest demonstrations. He said people had elected them to work for their interests and they would not succumb to the pressure of the doctors. Dr Hisham, a dentist by profession, said the administrators of hospitals had given him a list of the protesting doctors and now the government would take action against them.