PESHAWAR: The doctors on Saturday complained about their maltreatment at workplace by elected representatives and demanded that the government look into such cases, ensure their security on duty and provide required staff and equipment to hospitals to address the patients’ grievances.

Malgari Doctoran president Dr Saeedur Rehman told reporters at the Peshawar Press Club here that the provincial government had miserably failed to provide required equipment to hospitals and staff and that MPAs harassed doctors without reason.

Flanked by Dr Niaz Afridi, Dr Shah Sawar, Dr Saleem and Dr Jamil, the representatives of different bodies of doctors in the province, Dr Saeed said MPA Fazal Hakeem recently harassed a senior doctor at the Saidu Hospital over lack of facilities, while Dr Amjad of Abbottabad was sacked over delay in a postmortem.

He said it was the government’s duty to provide facilities and equipment to hospitals and appoint required staff but the MPAs of the ruling PTI in an attempt to hide their weaknesses were harassing doctors.

Demand their security at work, required staff, equipment for hospitals

Dr Saeed said the hospitals were run through board of governors comprising PTI activists that was a sheer injustice with the province.

He said during its three years tenure, the government failed to approve service structure for doctors and therefore, doctors had to complete the entire life in the same grade without getting promoted to the next step.

Dr Saeed demanded the approval of the health policy and service structure for doctors saying it was the provincial government’s subject after the approval of 18th constitutional amendment.

He also said some hospitals had a heavy workload and therefore, the government should establish new hospitals and appoint doctors and paramedics to ease it.

Dr Saeed urged the government to focus its attention to the control of drug addiction saying the number of addicts was fast increasing, especially youths.

He warned if corrective measures were not taken without delay, the menace could cause a disaster in the province.

“The operations of the foreign-funded non-governmental organisations have been restricted, while the province doesn’t have sufficient resources to treat drug addicts and therefore, the government should take steps to control drug addiction,” he said.

Dr Saeed said doctors had never wanted to come onto the streets to create problems for people and the government but if they were ill-treated and their demands were not met, then they would be left with no option but to protest.

Another representative of the doctors, Dr Saleem, said the Lady Reading Hospital was the only big hospital in the province, where thousands of patients were brought every day.

He said only 30 of the hospital’s 80 sanctioned posts of doctors were occupied and therefore, doctors were unable to treat a large number of patients coming in.

Dr Saleem said from 2007 to 2016, 272 bomb blasts had taken place in Peshawar and majority of the injured persons were treated at the LRH, while hundreds of others wounded in natural disasters also got treatment there.

“Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has time and again promised to appoint 3,800 doctors in the province but failed to keep it,” he said.

Dr Saleem said the government should conduct a survey to know the number of patients in the province before providing hospitals with the necessary equipment and staff members.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2016