RAWALPINDI: Patients at Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) on Friday suffered due to a strike observed by the young doctors against government’s decision to introduce a new law for medical teaching institutions and for the reinstatement of the hospital’s medical superintendent (MS) a month ago.

The Young Doctors Association (YDA) Rawalpindi chapter suspended services at the outpatient department (OPD) and announced that it will continue the strike on Saturday.

They demanded the government introduce a law to ensure security in hospitals and restore Dr Tariq Niazi to the post of medical superintendent.

Protest against proposed law for medical teaching institutions will start in HFH and DHQ hospital from Monday, young doctors’ representative says

Though Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU) had devised a counter plan, the strike created problems for patients.

Friday was half working day and the OPD remained open from 8am to 12 noon. But the young doctors did attend to the patients.

The patients had to shuttle between the hospital administration offices and the OPD rooms during the four hours in search of doctors and finally had to go back.

Around 2,000 patients visit the hospital’s OPD daily.

The RMU had asked professors and other teaching staff to remain in the OPD to attend patients in the absence of young doctors but they also did not turn up.

“We will continue the protest till our demands are met. We are demanding reappointment of Dr Tariq Niazi as the medical superintendent of BBH and will again observe a strike on Saturday,” Dr Rana Azeem, YDA president for BBH, told Dawn.

He said the association had also decided to boycott OPDs at the Holy Family Hospital (HFH) and the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital from Monday.

The young doctors were of the view that there was almost negligible security for doctors and staff.

“We are not creating problems for patients and will provide treatment to them at the emergency department,” Dr Azeem said.

On the other hand, RMU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mohammad Umer said the management had made arrangements for the patients and asked all teaching staff of the university to remain at the OPD.

He said the counter plan had been devised so the patients would not suffer on Saturday, adding that the government wanted to ensure patients got treatment in hospitals during strike by the young doctors.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2019