Protesting doctors refuse to budge on demands

PESHAWAR: The situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has become quite critical as all health workers, including doctors, paramedics, nursing staff and non-technical employees of the public sector hospitals, continued strike on the 16th consecutive day on Saturday.

It was widely expected that the doctors would call off strike after the release of 35 health workers, including doctors, paramedics and nursing staff on Friday.

However, senior leadership of the Grand Health Alliance (GHA), an umbrella organisation of all associations of doctors, paramedics, nursing staff and class-IV employees of the public sector hospitals, after a meeting decided to continue strike till the acceptance of all their demands.

The government said it had released all the health workers as a goodwill gesture.

Senior government officials told The News that a group of retired doctors approached by the government to help resolve the issues with the protesting doctors had advised unconditional release of the health workers.

The government had arrested 35 health workers during a protest rally in the Lady Reading Hospital on September 27 and sent them to Mardan jail.

The doctors, paramedics, nursing staff and non-technical staff of the public sector in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been on strike since September 27 and paralysed health services in all the government-run hospitals across the province.

Majority of them were angered by the police baton charge and teargas shelling on protesting doctors, paramedics and nursing staff gathered in LRH on September 27 to lodge their protest against the recently adopted Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Regional and District Health Authorities Act 2019.

Some of the doctors, paramedics and nursing staff were injured in the police action. Since September 27, all the public sector hospitals are closed and the patients badly suffered but the government couldn’t take serious efforts to resolve this issue with the health workers.

There had been no services in the OPDs, operation theaters as well as radiology and pathology services in the government-run hospitals.

According to sources, a group of retired doctors including Prof Sher Mohammad Khan, Prof Inayatur Rahman Khalil, Prof Mohammad Daud Khan, Prof Lubna Hasan, Prof Abdul Hameed Khan, Prof Jamila Bilal and Prof Rafiullah Orakzai held a meeting with Health Minister Dr Hisham Inamullah and other government officials and advised for holding talks with the protesting doctors instead of using force.

“We made a number of suggestions to the government. One of us suggested that USA is different and their system cannot be adopted here presumably referring to Dr Nausherwan Burki,” said one member of the group of retired doctor.

Another member of the delegation said the government wanted them to deal with the protesting doctors as they used to be their students and trainees.

“We explained to them that using violence against the doctors and other health workers cannot be defended. Secondly, we told them that most of our students and trainees had either become professors or retired but we can use our influence to advise the protesting doctors to end their protest and sit with the government for talks as their strike was causing suffering to the poor patients,” he said.Both of them avoided to be named.

On the other hand, Dr Alamgir Yousafzai, chairman GHA, told The News that they would continue their protest across the province till all their demands were accepted.

He said that after their release, they had not been approached by the government for a meeting.

“People in the government are powerless to take decisions and therefore they are avoiding talks with us.

We believe in meaningful dialogue with the government and would not call off strike till practical measures are taken to accept all our demands,” he said.

Dr Alamgir said that besides the health department workers, all government employees had announced to join their protest from Monday.

He claimed that all the doctors recruited under the Medical Teaching Institution Act 2015 and doing the institution-based private practice also joined them.