LAHORE: The Young Doctors’ Association (YDA), Punjab, plans protests on September 9 across the Punjab against the privatisation of public hospitals.

The Punjab government has planned outsourcing public health facilities to private organisations in 10 districts.

YDA leaders Dr Amir Bandesha, Dr Adnan Gondal and Dr Ehsan Lali told reporters at Shaikh Zayed Hospital on Wednesday the privatisation of government hospitals would leave a devastating impact on the healthcare system of the province.

Dr Bandesha said that the Punjab government had planned the outsourcing without consulting the stakeholders and it was going to handover those facilities to private companies on October 31.

“This development has shocked the medical community and other employees of the government hospitals,” he said.

YDA leaders said they feared that in a later stage the private companies would occupy the valuable state land worth billions besides health infrastructure.

According to them, such a scheme was also executed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but it turned out to be a bad move there. They demanded the Punjab government immediately review the plan in the best interests of the patients.

If the decision was not withdrawn, hundreds of YDA activists would take to streets on September 9 and block major roads of the province, they said.

YDA office bearers added the agitation movement would be intensified in a later stage if government’s response to the protests was not positive.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2015

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