RAWALPINDI: Young doctors in three government hospitals here on Tuesday observed a strike against the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE)’s raid at Lahore’s Services Hospital to arrest a junior doctor for alleged corruption.

Young Doctors Association (YDA) Punjab senior vice president Dr Atif Chaudhry has been nominated in a corruption case.

When officials from the ACE raided the hospital to arrest him on Monday night, doctors clashed with them.

YDA Punjab chairman Dr Haider Akhter told Dawn that the association had gone on a strike because the ACE did not follow rules and procedures for questioning the doctor.

“The hospital medical superintendent and the college principal should have been taken into confidence to issue a notice to the doctor to present himself before the investigators to answer the allegations.”

He said Dr Atif was an active leader of the YDA and the Punjab government was trying to drag the YDA leadership into false cases so that they would stop their ‘One patient one bed’ demand in government hospitals.

He said the young doctors did not perform duty in the outdoor patient departments (OPDs) on Tuesday. “It is very strange that the ACE did not know the procedures and forgot to involve the department head to investigate the matter,” he said.

Meanwhile, the doctors’ strike created problems for the patients in the city. Though the administration arranged senior doctors to attend emergency patients, they came for an hour only and left the hospital.

Last week, chemists went on a strike across the province due to which patients had to face problems in getting medicines. This week, the strike by the junior doctors forced the patients to go to private clinics.

“It has become a routine in government hospitals; sometimes there are no medicines and sometimes doctors go on a strike,” said Asghar Ali, a resident of Banni Chowk, who visited one of the hospitals.

He said he had taken his wife to the hospital with the complaint of a stomach pain. However, the OPD was closed and no doctor was available there.

Mohammad Naseem, a resident of Arjan Nagar, said he took his brother to the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital with the complaint of a high fever. “As there was no doctor, the patient was taken to a private hospital.”

He said the government was collecting taxes from the citizens but in return provided them no facility. Politicians go abroad for medical treatment and there is no facility for the poor people in the country, he said.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2017