LAHORE: The Young Doctors Association (YDA) Punjab has announced to reopen the outpatient departments (OPDs) of all the public teaching hospitals of Lahore.

The all-of-a-sudden announcement came on Thursday, a day after the caretaker government took an ultimate decision to launch crackdown on the protesting young medics who were behind the two-week long closure of the OPDs to put pressure on the police for the arrest of the suspected killers of a doctor in Gujrat city.

An official said the health department officers believed that some YDA office-bearers were using the patients as a ‘shield’. He said the health authorities conveyed to Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi that the YDA men were exerting pressure on the government ‘just for salary increase’ by suspending the healthcare services at the OPDs, leading to suffering of the ailing people who had nothing to do with the murder incident. They were of the view that there was no justification to shut down OPDs of the government hospitals and that it had been a YDA modus operandi to use strike/protest as a weapon to get their demands accepted.

On the other hand, YDA President Dr Shoaib Niazi made an announcement to resume duties at the OPDs of Lahore hospitals just a day before Friday (Dec 15), the deadline given by him to the caretaker CM for an apology for passing ‘unreasonable remarks’ against the young medics in the wake of two-week long closure of OPDs. Some days back, he had warned the CM of taking extreme steps if he didn’t withdraw his remarks.

“We are going to end the strike at the OPDs of the state-run hospitals because we fear that the police may launch a crackdown on young medics,” Dr Niazi said.

He said that the YDA was not against the revamp programme launched by the caretaker government for the upgrade of the emergency departments of teaching hospitals of Lahore.

He also hinted at another plan of the government to transfer the protesting young doctors outside the city and requested the CM to begin a dialogue with the YDA to resolve their demand.

“We want to be part of the team of the chief minister Punjab”, the YDA president said, adding that the CM should accept the offer with open heart.

Dr Shoaib Niazi rejected the allegations that the YDA had shut down OPDs of the government hospitals of Lahore to please a political party.

It is worth mentioning here that the young doctors denied treatment to thousands of poor patients during the two-week long closure of the ODPs of teaching hospitals of the city.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2023