PESHAWAR: A statement and tweets by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan, which said that doctors’ strike was against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s reforms programme in health sector, have upset members of the Young Doctors Association who are at a hunger strike camp for the past 12 days for acceptance of their demands.

“We aren’t opposed to the PTI’s reforms programme in health sector. We fully support measures to improve the patient care, but Imran Khan has been misled by people against us,” YDA joint secretary Dr Ahmed Zeb told this correspondent.

He said that they knew that Mr Khan was an honest and sincere person wanting to improve the patient care through reforms, but he had been held hostage by people who didn’t want to make his dream of reforms come true.

Dr Zeb said that the vested interest group had portrayed them as an anti-reform group which was wrong, as they wanted Imran to give receptive ears to their demands.

“We have the people’s mandate for reforms and are committed to seeing through these reforms, including health sector reforms,” the PTI chief had tweeted on June 2. In another tweet, he had stated: “For the status quo doctors trying to stop KP health reforms I want to give a clear warning that PTI govt will not be blackmailed or threatened.”

The same day, he alleged that doctors were opposed to biometric attendance system installed at the hospitals to ensure attendance of the health professionals and benefit the patients.

YDA was established in 2011 after Punjab where it was set up in 2008 with a clear agenda to improve health care and strive for the rights of the doctors. Its members claim that they voted for the PTI in 2013 elections because they believed that this party can bring changes.

A senior YDA member said that despite reservations about the implementation of the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act 2015, they accepted it for the sake of betterment at the hospitals.

“We have now been presented as bad guys not before IK, but also in the eyes of Prof Nausherwan Burki, who is spearheading KP health reforms programme, which is an injustice with doctors who have won three KP seats of total four in the election of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council,” he said.

He said that there were senior doctors and politicians affiliated with the ruling PTI, who had tried successfully to depict wrong picture of the situation and convey to Imran Khan that doctors wanted incentives without performing duties.

The YDA members believe that their calls for strikes were genuine. At least five doctors died at the hostels due to lack of protection whose families required compensation. “We demand that the decision about devolution of Postgraduate Medical Institute be rescinded to revert to the old system of central induction of trainee medical officers for specialization,” he said.

The health department argues that stipends of TMOs have been doubled and PGMI’s devolution is aimed at enabling doctors to pursue their specialisation with more convenience.

He said that the YDA wanted Imran Khan to listen to them prior to making any remarks.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2017