LAHORE: The Young Doctors Association (YDA) Punjab has announced protest demonstrations from Aug 19 after their recent meetings with the health department remained inconclusive due to persistent “deadlock” on some demands of the young health professionals.

YDA representatives including president Dr Ajmal Chaudhry, Dr Amir Bandesha and Dr Shabbir Chaudhry announced this while speaking to reporters at the Allama Iqbal Medical College on Tuesday.

They said health authorities were not showing interest to fulfill some demands of the young doctors which had been finalised in the draft of service structure.

Dr Ajmal said the YDA was being forced to take this step as the health department used delaying tactics despite raising the issue in some recent meetings. He said the young doctors would launch protest movement all over the province. In the provincial capital, he said, the doctors would block four major roads in order to press the government to accept their demands.

He said the department had backed out of a major demand of the YDA about provision of 800 paid postgraduate trainee seats. It was also reluctant to increase pay of the house officers and PGs in accordance with the service structure, he said.

The regularisation of 63 contract doctors at the Shaikh Zayed Hospital in Rahim Yar Khan and Shaikh Zayed Hospital Lahore’s affiliation with the King Edward Medical University were other demands which were yet to be fulfilled, he said.

Dr Ajmal said the YDA also condemned the government’s decision of outsourcing the health facilities of 10 districts of Punjab.

“We are giving a deadline to the government till Aug 18 after which the young doctors from all over the province will start agitation,” he warned.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2015

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