Doctors continue protests for salaries

The Young Doctors Association (YDA) continues to stage protests for the 12th straight day in Punjab against their low salaries.

There is no outpatient clinic facility in the teaching hospitals of Lahore and other cities across the Punjab. However, emergency wards and intensive care units are operating as per normal.

The YDA has set up medical camps in front of teaching hospitals to facilitate poor patients and to register their protest.

Young doctors plan to get public support

Patients have been suffering badly because of the prolonged strike by young doctors in outpatient departments of public sector hospitals across the province, which entered 11th day on Friday. However the provincial government has paid no heed to the demands of young doctors.

Talking to ‘The News’ here on Friday, Young Doctors Association (YDA) Punjab Chairman Dr. Muhammad Haroon said: “We will continue our strike in OPDs till fulfilment of our demands. However we are planning to go to the public and involve community groups, including associations and organisations of businessmen, lawyers and other professionals, to convince the government to act in accordance with the promises it has made with young doctors.”

He added that the concerned government officials and central leadership of the ruling PML-N in the province, including Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif, have assured the YDA that the demands of young doctors would be given due consideration but the cold response from them belied their claims.

On the call of the Young Doctors Association Punjab, young doctors withdrew their services from OPDs of the Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Holy Family Hospital and the District Headquarters Hospital along with other public sector hospitals in the province on March 1, however, Intensive Care Units, Coronary Care Units and Emergency Departments of hospitals have been operational as per routine. The young doctors have also been running free medical camps outside the hospitals to facilitate poor patients.

The young doctors have been demanding 100 per cent pay raise, pay protection and increase in health budget. “The YDA office-bearers met with Punjab CM during January this year and he assured the YDA that young doctors would be given increase in salaries yet the government has done nothing so far to solidify its claim,” said Dr Haroon.

He added that on Tuesday, the YDA representatives put their final demands before a special committee formed on the directives of Punjab CM yet the government has given no response as yet. The special committee was comprised principals of different medical colleges of the province.

Principal Rawalpindi Medical College Professor Muhammad Afzal Farooqi who was member of the special committee expressed to ‘The News’ that the demands of the young doctors are legitimate in principle yet the government does not afford such a huge budget required to increase their salaries by 100 per cent. “The government needs around Rs17 billion for the demanded increase while the present health budget of the province does not exceed Rs50 billion,” he said.

Govt-doctors talks end in deadlock

The Young Doctors Association on Thursday threatened to remove its medical camps set up outside government hospitals in the province from Monday and not allow any doctor to sit in the outpatient departments (OPDs) if the provincial government failed to increase the salaries of doctors.

Talking to this reporter, YDA Punjab Chairman Dr Mohammad Haroon said the deadlock between the association and the provincial government continued on the 10th day of the strike with the former sticking to their demand for a pay raise.

He said the government’s focal person, MNA Pervaiz Malik, met YDA representatives on Thursday but the talks ended without any result.

The provincial government was of the view that it would increase the salaries of trainee doctors under different packages first while other doctors would get the pay raise later. However, the YDA insisted that all the doctors should be given pay raise simultaneously.

He said the government representative sought time to convey the message to the government and the YDA at a separate meeting decided to continue the strike in the OPDs.

When contacted, Secretary Health Fawad Hasan Fawad told Dawn on the phone that the trainee doctors were showing immaturity, leaving thousands of patients unattended for their salaries.

He said this was not the proper way to demand salary increase. He claimed that OPDs in government hospitals were working as per routine because senior doctors were providing treatment to the patients.

He said the government was not willing to take aggressive action against the protesting doctors. He said the strike would not provide any benefit to the doctors.

Meanwhile, the strike of trainee doctors entered 10th day on Thursday creating problems for the patients at the three government hospitals in the city.

Despite the fact that YDA set up medical camps in three teaching hospitals, a large number of patients and their attendants coming from far-flung areas gathered outside the OPDs at Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Holy Family Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital with no doctor ready to see them.

Gov of Punjab & Health Department

Gov of Punjab & Health Department are a bunch of retards who on one hand claim that they don't have the money to consider YDA demands and the very next day put adds in all newspapers which cost millions to publish.

Young doctors strike continues

The young doctors held medical camps for patients outside almost all public hospitals of the provincial metropolis as part of their continued strike on Thursday.

The strike have entered in to 10th consecutive day on call of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) Punjab and outpatients departments in hospitals across the province remained closed, the association representatives said here.

The young doctors have been demanding pay raise, pay protection and increase in health budget.

YDA representatives further said that the young doctors were on strike for more than one week but the government did not pay heed towards their demands.

The representatives of the YDA said the strike would continue in the OPDs till the acceptance of their demands.

Punjab doctors’ strike continues on 9th day

The strike of Punjab’s doctors continues here on the ninth consecutive day today (Wednesday) for an increase in their salaries.

Doctors demonstrated outside hospitals and administered treatment to patients in medical camps there.

Routine duty in several teaching hospitals of the province, including those in Lahore, is suspended due to the strike.

The Young Doctors Association said the strike will continue till their demands are not fulfilled.

Pay raise announced: Doctors refuse to call off strike

The young doctors would not call off their strike until notification regarding the increase in their salaries was issued by the Punjab government.

This was stated by Chairman Young Doctors Association (YDA) Punjab Dr Muhammad Haroon here on Tuesday.

He said Prof Dr. Liaque Ahmed, Principal Multan Medical College and a member of Punjab Medical Colleges` Principals committee constituted by Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif to resolve the problems faced by the young doctors held a meeting with the Young Doctors Association (YDA) representatives in Lahore on Tuesday.

After the meeting, he said, Prof Dr Laique Ahmed announced that the young doctors` salaries would be increased by 40 per cent in the current fiscal year while remaining 60 per cent increase would be given in the next fiscal year.

Dr. Haroon said that the YDA representative made it clear that they would accept the package only if the government issued the notification within this week. He said that the doctors would not call off the strike and would continue to treat the patients at medical camps instead of OPDs until the notification was issued.

Earlier, the protesting trainee doctors of three hospitals of Rawalpindi held medical camps on the footpath outside the hospitals and treated a number of patients.

The strike of the young doctors entered 8th day as they had been demanding increase in their salaries. However, the patients continued to suffer because they had to visit the medical camps outside the hospitals after getting slips from the counter.

More than 4,500 patients daily visit the three government-run hospitals and due to the young doctors` strike, the patients have to wait for hours for their turn in the already over crowded medical camps.

After the establishment of the medical camps outside Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH), District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) and Holy Family Hospital (FHF), the senior doctors heaved a sigh of relief and went on their routine as most of the senior doctors are running their own private clinics and hospitals.

“We are under a lot of pressure. We are doing our best in treating as many patients as possible,” said Dr Asma Ahmed, a trainee doctor at Benazir Bhutto Hospital medical camp.

She said that the young doctors were providing the patients with free medicines. She said that two doctors were checking about 100 patients daily.