ABBOTTABAD: Abbottabad tehsil council naib nazim Sardar Shuja Ahmad and eight council members have filed an application with the Mirpur police station for the registration of FIR against the protesting doctors of the Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, claiming 76 deaths occurred on the premises during the strike.

The doctors have been on strike for the last eight days.

The council members made doctors, chairman of the ATH board of governors, medical director and hospital administration respondents in the application.

They demanded that after initial inquiry, FIR be registered against the strikers over denial of care to patients.

The hospital’s doctors, including professors, assistant professors, associate professors, registrars and young doctors, have announced that they would continue with their strike until the government met their demands.

After a meeting of the doctors association’s general body at the Abbottabad Complex, Young Doctors Association president Dr Amin Afridi and representatives of other doctors said their strike was against the hospital’s ‘corrupt mafia’ and that it would continue until action was taken against those plundering funds.

They also insisted that the new management working under the BoG had miserably failed to improve patient care and administrative and financial affairs in the hospital.

The doctors said they had formally informed the chief minister and health minister about the administrative and financial irregularities in the hospital, but to no avail.

They said the association would hold another meeting tomorrow (Thursday) to decide future course of action.

Meanwhile, ATH medical director Saleem Afzal claimed all demands of the strikers relating to the hospital’s administration had been met, while the issues, including the one about biometric attendance of staff members, had been referred to the board of governors for necessary action.

He said efforts were being made to ensure smooth provision of care to visitors.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2017