The Punjab Health Department has dismissed from service 60 house officers/postgraduate trainees and served notices on 84 medical officers under the PIDA Act, for participating in the ongoing strike and disrupting the healthcare services in teaching hospitals of the Punjab after the 24-hour ultimatum ended. The list of doctors, who have been dismissed from service, is as under:
Mayo Hospital, Lahore: Dr Asad Jamil Awan, Dr Hafiz Muhammad Shahid Shafiq, Dr Waqas Ali, Dr Hasan Tariq, Dr Tariq Mahmood, Dr Asad Aizaz Chatha, Dr Umer Liaqaut Ghani, Dr Aziz Bin Akhtar, Dr Usman-ul-Haq, Dr Muhammad Azim, Dr Asad Ali Chaudhry, Dr Muhammad Mudassar Aslam, Dr Muhammad Latif, Dr Abdul Rehman, Dr Kamran Shahzad and Dr Dilshad Ahmad.
Services Hospital, Lahore: Dr Hamid Mukhtar Butt and Dr Imran Habib. Jinnah Hospital, Lahore: Dr Usman Rasool, Dr Rehana Kanwal, Dr Naeem Jan, Dr Fahad Naeem, Dr M Usman Khalid and Dr Usman Imtiaz.
Lahore General Hospital, Lahore: Dr Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal, Dr Nasir Ahmad, Dr Waleed Ahmad Khan, Dr Javed Ishaq and Dr Hamid Yasin Bajwa. Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore: Dr Waseem Muhammad, Dr Abdul Majeed, Dr Zubair Ahmad Khan, Dr Zahid Tayyab and Dr Muhammad Nauman Akram.
Allied Hospital, Faisalabad: Dr Muhammad Ali Usman and Dr Khurram Habib. Nishtar Hospital, Multan: Dr Kamal-ud-Din, Dr Syed Gulzar-ul-Hasan Gillani, Dr Shoaib Saleem, Dr Muhammad Umer Farooq and Dr Khawaja Hareem Farooq.
Benazir Bhutto Hospital (Rawalpindi General Hospital), Rawalpindi: Dr Faisal Iftikhar, Dr Aqeel Natt, Dr Shoaib Gul and Dr Rashid Tufail. Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi: Dr Gulshan Ahmad, Dr Faizan Ali Rao, Dr Sohail Raza Chaudhry, Dr Waleed Ahmad, Dr Nasir Habib, Dr Muhammad Asif Raza, Dr Nasir Hussain, Dr Kamran Ahmad and Dr Zahid Hafeez.
Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur: Dr Shoaib Mushtaq. Children’s Hospital, Lahore: Dr Tahira Jamil, Dr Zahid Bashir, Dr Faisal Jamil and Dr Syed Khuzaima Arslan. Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore: Dr Amir Bandesha.
The list of doctors who have been served notices of termination under PIDA Act, is as under. Mayo Hospital, Lahore: Dr Abdul Rehman, Dr Muhammad Kashif, Dr Matloob Ahmad, Dr Usman Zafar Dar, Dr Atif Majeed and Dr Sajid Hussain.
Services Hospital, Lahore: Dr Abdul Basit Qureshi, Dr Tahir Mahmood Bajwa, Dr Javed-ur-Rehman, Dr Sajid Mukhtar, Dr Fawad Ahmad Randhawa, Dr Usman Ayub, Dr Imran Khan, Dr Faheem Asghar, Dr Zulqernain Butt, Dr Anwaar-ul-Haq, Dr Javed Naseer, Dr Liaquat Bhatti and Dr M Basharat.
Jinnah Hospital, Lahore: Dr Abu Bakar Gondal and Dr Muhammad Javed Iqbal. Lahore General Hospital, Lahore: Dr Muhammad Ajmal, Dr Hammad Nasir and Dr Imran Bajwa.
Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore: Dr Hashim, Dr Adnan Arshad, Dr Muhammad Imran Khan and Dr Muhammad Naeem.
Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Rahim Yar Khan: Dr Shabbir Ahmad Warraich, Dr Asif Shah, Dr Amjad Ali, Dr Abdul Ghaffar, Dr Faraz Sharif and Dr Rashid Mahmood.
Allied Hospital, Faisalabad: Dr Muhammad Irfan, Dr Muhammad Arif, Dr Tamseel and Assistant Professor Khurram Sohail Raja.
Nishtar Hospital, Multan: Dr Muhammad Waseem Rabbani, Dr Mazhar Ali, Dr Muhammad Ali Waqas, Dr Muhammad Jahangir Riaz, Dr Shakeel Ahmad, Dr Kashif Siddique and Dr Khurram Murad Malik.
Benazir Bhutto Hospital (Rawalpindi General Hospital), Rawalpindi: Dr Umer Saeed.
District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, Rawalpindi: Dr Ghulam Abbas, Dr Ayyaz Haider Mughal, Dr Rana Mohsin Khan, Dr Ambreen Ashraf, Dr Ali Murtaza Samar, Dr Shafiq Umer, Dr Adnan Khalid, Dr Salma Munawar, Dr Adnan Zahid, Dr Zaimeer Hayat Khan, Dr Farah Kazmi, Prof Dr Faisal G. Bhopal, Dr Gauhar Rasheed, Dr Faryal Azhar, Dr Muhammad Iqbal, Dr Sobia Nawaz, Dr Maleeha Sadaf, Dr Farhan Maqbool and Dr Arshad Iqbal Satti.
Tehsil Headquarters (THQ) Hospital, Okara: Dr Abdul Ahad.
Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur: Dr Nasir Wakeel, Dr Tanveer Ahmad Bajwa, Dr Asad Faraz, Dr Armaghan, Dr Amer Majeed, Dr Irfan Ashraf, Dr Zulqarnain, Dr Ahmed Raza, Dr Zahid Shahzad, Dr Imran Asif Bajwa, Dr Shahid Mahmood, Dr Munir Ahmed Siddique and Dr Ehsan Firdous.
Children’s Hospital, Lahore: Dr Syed Nasir Abbas Bukhari, Dr Muhammad Arshad, Dr Faiza Noor and Dr Naila Yasmin.
Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore: Dr Ijaz Chandio.
On the other hand, the Young Doctors Association (YDA) is adamant that it would continue tendering resignations if their demands are not fulfilled.
However, patients are the worst victims due to lack of availability of treatment services. According to media reports, at least 22 people lost their lives in public sector hospitals in the Punjab on Sunday after both the government and young doctors refused to show any flexibility after failure of their negotiations over the package. The patients were disappointed in view of lack of any relief to their medical and financial miseries as several of them, who could afford, had to visit the private hospitals to get required treatment at high cost.
Besides, the anti-polio campaign, scheduled to be held from April 4 to 6, is also in jeopardy, and according to some media reports, has been postponed.
However, the administrations of all teaching hospitals made alternative arrangements, including assigning senior doctors and several other doctors from periphery, to provide emergency care to patients in emergency wards. Besides, the process of recruitments is also going on as nearly 200 doctors, including 70 doctors in Lahore, have been posted to teaching hospitals across the province.
Talking to The News, Parliamentary Secretary Health, Punjab, Dr Saeed Elahi, said that the Punjab government had put its foot down and terminated 144 doctors, out of which 60 were dismissed from service and 84 were served notices for termination. Besides, he said that up to 200 doctors had been recruited so far and another 300 to 400 applications were in process for appointment in different hospitals of the Punjab. He further said that those doctors, who couldn’t get jobs and now their two-year courses had completed in Saudi Arabia, the UK and Japan, had returned for availing the opportunity to join the government service. “Those doctors who were hired against exorbitant salaries by Saudi Arabia but were posted in far-flung areas, have also been returning and would be posted in different hospitals of the province,” he added.
Senior Adviser to Chief Minister Punjab, Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa, has said the members of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has shown humane attitude by looking after patients in emergency wards during the recent strike of young doctors.
He expressed these views during a meeting with a delegation led by President PMA Dr. Abdur Rasheed Malik.
Another delegation of Paramedics Association, led by Ch. Ameer Ahmed, also met the senior adviser. The delegation presented their demands with regard to service structure, upon which Secretary Health informed that approval to the service structure of paramedics has already been granted and their other demands will be fulfilled very soon.
APP adds: The administration of Services Hospital on Sunday appointed nine more doctors, including a professor, against the posts vacated by the striking doctors. After the Sakhi Sarwar blast, the protesting doctors ended their strike and joined the district headquarters hospital for treatment of the injured at the emergency ward on Sunday evening.
TT SINGH: A PMA emergent meeting on Sunday demanded the government quash all cases registered against doctors and reinstate all those who had been terminated from service.
APP adds: Meanwhile, the YDA claimed to have received 5,500 resignations from young doctors, which would be presented to the Punjab government soon, said a spokesman of the YDA Dr Nasir Abbas while addressing a press conference here on Sunday. The YDA spokesman reiterated that the young doctors would not join duty till the sacking of secretary health.
