LAHORE: Scores of Young Doctors Association (YDA) activists lodged a protest demonstration and a sit-in on The Mall on Thursday against the Central Induction Policy (CIP), proposed by the health department.

A spokesman for the Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department, however, called the strike by the YDA a flop show.

YDA activists gathered outside the Punjab Assembly from all over the province on the call of the YDA, Punjab. A large number of students from medical colleges also joined the demo.

YDA leaders asked the government to withdraw the CIP, saying that the policy had many loopholes and required modifications in the best interest of the students willing to appear for post graduation.

They also announced strike at outpatient departments (OPDs) of government hospitals from Friday (today).

Doctors also did not attend patients in OPDs, wards and operation theatres of public hospitals.

Operations were postponed due to the absence of medics at public hospitals. YDA office bearers, who had initially agreed to launch the CIP after some modifications, planned agitation when a group of the YDA pressured them to reject the scheme.

Some insiders said that a former YDA president had provoked the young medics against the current leadership of the association in the name of CIP.

They said the former president had launched a drive at institutions level instigating the postgraduate trainees and house officers to reach the Punjab Assembly.

According to insiders, the YDA office bearers who had given a go-head to launch the policy, later changed their decision and announced protest against the CIP to ‘hijack’ the agitation.

After remaining present for some hours, the young doctors dispersed.

STRIKE NOT SUCCESSFUL: A spokesman for the Specialised Healthcare & Medical Education Department said the strike call by a faction of doctors against the “transparent and merit based online induction policy” for postgraduate doctors under the Punjab Residency Programme in teaching and specialised healthcare hospitals has failed. In a statement, the spokesperson said a majority of doctors continued treating the patients in OPDs of the hospitals.

The statement said that on average the turnout of patients in OPDs of teaching hospitals was almost same on July 21.

He said that according to data, 4,413 patients visited the OPD of Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur, 1,125 the Dera Ghazi Khan District Headquarters hospital, 3,390 the Allied Hospital of Faisalabad, 1,488 the Lahore Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), 2,072 Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, 1,682 Mayo Hospital, 1,766 Services Hospital, 2,180 Jinnah Hospital, 1,744 Government Teaching Hospital of Shahdara, 2,135 Government Nawaz Sharif Yakki Gate Hospital, 468 Lady Aitcheson Hospital, 2,500 Children’s Hospital, Lahore, 917 Lahore General Hospital, 1,800 Benazir Bhutto Hospital in Rawalpindi, 1,214 Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi Institute of Cardiology of Multan 1,385 Government Mian Munshi Hospital and 1,214 Faisalabad Institute of Cardiology OPD. He said that the turnout of the patients in the hospitals reflected that the majority of doctors believed in a system based on transparency and merit.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2016