LAHORE: The Garden Town police on Tuesday lodged a case against nearly 125 male and female young doctors and medical students for lodging protest against the National Licencing Examination (NLE) to be held by the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC), and disrupting healthcare delivery at the public hospitals.

The police nominated 18 doctors of various hospitals of the city in the FIR, including members and office-bearers of the Young Doctors Association (YDA).

The police acted against the medics when they took to the street, blocked a main road near the Jinnah Hospital Lahore and raised slogans against the government and the PMC.

The protesters threw traffic out of gear for many hours, causing a great deal of inconvenience for the commuters and especially the ambulances carrying patients.

A group of protesting medics also created tension for the patients getting treatment at the Jinnah Hospital when they forcibly stopped their colleagues on duty from checking patients.

The witnesses said that a few attendants were also thrashed by the protesting doctors on complaining about interruption in the treatment to their serious patients.

They said the young doctors also tried to close down the hospital’s OPD (out patient department) and operation theaters, but the administration acted timely and restored services. There were also some reports that the protesting doctors misbehaved with their colleagues who refused to join them on the road for agitation.

The situation remained tense in some other government hospitals of the city as well where the young doctors turned aggressive to the patients and their neutral colleagues.

Following the protest, the police registered a criminal case against the doctors involved in interruption of healthcare delivery in the state-run hospitals of the city and against those creating hurdles for the public on the city roads.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2021