Patients suffer as YDA, paramedics observe strike

LAHORE:On the call of Grand Health Alliance (GHA), young doctors and medical staff observed strike in Out-Patients Department (OPDs) in public sector hospitals across Punjab on Thursday against any attempt to privatise hospitals under the Punjab Medical Teaching Institutions (Reforms) Ordinance 2019.

The young doctors, consultants, nurses, paramedical staff, allied health professionals and all healthcare associations boycotted their duties to perform elective services, including outdoor, operation theatres, radiological and pathological services in mega teaching institutions, including Mayo Hospital, Services Hospital, Children’s Hospital, Lahore General Hospital, Jinnah Hospital, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Lahore as well as other districts across the province.

Though the authorities claimed provision of health facilities at OPDs with the help of consultants and administrative doctors, lack of sufficient presence of healthcare providers caused huge inconvenience to visiting patients.

YDA arranged conventions at teaching hospitals across the province to highlight salient features of the proposed legislation, which according to them, was against interests of both the healthcare providers and the patients. Rejecting the act, doctors warned the government of dire consequences if it decided to go ahead with the anti-patients’ legislation.

The YDA Punjab office-bearers under the leadership of Secretary General Dr Salman Haseeb held health minister responsible for the inconvenience caused to the patients. “It is beyond comprehension why the government is bent upon bringing the system that has already failed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” they added. YDA has announced continuing strike until the government withdraws legislation.

They announced continuing OPDs strike and warned the government of extending strike to indoor wards if this legislation was not withdrawn, which would be presented in the Punjab Assembly for final approval for implementation on Friday (today).

awareness: The Centre for Emergency and Medical Services (CEMS) of University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) in collaboration with Pink Ribbon and Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital organised an awareness walk and seminar on breast cancer here on Thursday.

UVAS Pro Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Masood Rabbani led the walk while UVAS Senior Tutor Prof Dr Kamran Ashraf, Prof Dr Muhammad Azam and a number of students and faculty members participated in it.

Later, UVAS Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha chaired a seminar held with the theme of “Join Us to Know How to Prevent the Leading Cause of Death among Woman.” The speakers spoke about the awareness, prevention, management, diagnosis and treatment of the breast cancer.

walk: In order to mark World Mental Health Day, Punjab University organised an awareness walk and set up stalls at various places on the university’s New Campus here Thursday. The walk started from old building of Centre for Clinical Psychology (CCP) and concluded outside the Centre for High Energy Physics (CHEP). PU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Niaz Ahmed, CCP Director Dr Saima Dawood, faculty members and a number of students participated in the walk. The participants were holding banners and posters inscribed with mental health awareness information.