A look at the steps taken by the Punjab government to address the issue.

According to Dr Saeed Elahi, the Punjab government had made huge allocations and elevated the salary status of its doctors, nurses and paramedics to a level that is better than any other province. He claimed that in addition to the annual budget the government had allocated financial incentives of Rs5.2 billion for doctors, while Shahbaz Sharif had announced a “special salary package” for doctors, nurses and paramedics during the 37-day long strike of young doctors in May 2012 and the health department delivered it to them a month later. Yet the doctors continued with their protests, observing four full-fledged strikes in Punjab from January 2012 to February this year for a salary raise.

Dr Saeed said the Punjab government had also constituted an 18-member committee for the provision of a new and comprehensive service structure for doctors belonging to all cadres. Headed by Senator Ishaq Dar, the committee held many rounds of meetings with doctors and representatives of all medical associations including the Punjab chapter of the Pakistan Medical Association, Young Doctors Association Punjab and Medical Teachers Association besides principals and medical superintendents of all the teaching hospitals. He said the committee finalised the service structure draft while accepting major and long-standing demands of the protesting doctors in October last year.

“The Punjab government accepted 43 out of the 45 demands of the doctors; it was a historic step,” said Dr Saeed.

He said notifications have been issued by the health department of all settled demands except a few which are pending due to legal complications and financial constraints. He said that one of the demands of the doctors was a better atmosphere to attend to patients in hot weather. For this purpose, Dr Saeed said that air-conditioners were installed in the general wards of government hospitals at a cost of Rs2bn.

To cover the shortage of doctors, the government has established four new medical colleges in Sialkot, Gujranwala, DG Khan and Sahiwal. A new 410-bed hospital is in the final stages of completion in Bahawalpur while cardiac surgery has been started at the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology, claims Dr Saeed, adding that this state-of-the-art hospital is even better than the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore.

Similarly, more hospitals are being constructed in Sargodha and Lodhran while a kidney centre is being built in Multan.The former health parliamentary secretary said that the government did a lot to uplift health standards and provide better opportunities to the health providers including young doctors and now it is their turn to spare no effort in the service of ailing humanity and ensure provision of free medicines on a priority basis to poor and deserving patients.