Health workers extend support to doctors’ protest

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Employees Coordination Council on Monday rejected the Regional Health Authority (RHA) and District Health Authority (DHA) Act.

Speaking at a press conference here, the council president Syed Roedad Shah and other office-bearers announced support to the protesting doctors.

The representatives of the council termed the Medical Teaching Institution Act a cruel step, adding the government wanted privatisation of the public sector hospitals through RHA and DHA.

They said the step would deprive poor patients of free treatment and added that the government had presented the bill in the provincial assembly without consulting stakeholders.

The speakers said the proposed act would give unprecedented powers to the minister for health and would infringe upon the rights of the workers.

They believed the act had blocked the promotions of the civil servants and would deprive the families of deceased employees of benefits.

The council’s representatives said the government wanted to convert hospitals into money making machine and deprive the workers of their rights. They said the MTI Act had failed and new experiments should be avoided.