Young doctors warn of tendering resignations

MANSEHRA: The representatives of young doctors association have warned of tendering resignations if the KP government in the province didn’t accept their demands.

“The government wants to bring health system and hospitals under community in accordance with American model, which in other words is an attempt to privatise the tertiary care hospitals in the province which is unacceptable to us,” Dr Yasir, an office-bearer of Young Doctors Association, told reporters here on Monday.

The doctors, who have been on a strike since May 16, did not treat patients at the out-patient-department hospitals across the district on the fifth consecutive day on Monday. The doctor’s checkup rooms remained locked and police personnel were roaming around the premises of the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital, the sole tertiary health care facility in entire upper parts of Hazara - Mansehra, Battagram, Torghar and Kohistan districts - all the day.

Dr Yasir said that if the government wanted to introduce American imported health care system here, it should also overhaul the existing governance system in the country and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“We have collected resignation letters from doctors and in case our demands, which are widely in favour of the public, are not met, we would never hesitate to submit our resignations to the government,” he said.

He said though Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had called a provincial body of the doctors for negotiations on Tuesday, the fraternity was disappointed by government’s attitude as it delayed the process which could have been initiated on the first day of the strike or even before that.