RAWALPINDI: As the strike by Young Doctors Association (YDA) in the Outdoor Patients Departments (OPDs) of three government hospitals continued, professors and senior doctors from Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU) started running the OPD of Holy Family Hospital (HFH).

Though the hospitals’ administration had made arrangements to run the OPDs at the two other hospitals as well, it has not been successful so far.

On Friday morning, patients suffered due to the absence of young doctors in the OPDs of Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital and Rawalpindi Teaching Hospital in Raja Bazaar.

However, RMU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mohammad Umer and professors arrived at HFH and started checking patients at the OPD.

We would not surrender and not allow govt to outsource hospitals, says YDA

“In HFH, more than 1652 patients were checked by the vice chancellor and professors from all departments. On the other hand, senior registrars ran the OPD of the gynae department in the old block of the hospital and checked 600 patients,” said HFH Medical Superintendent Dr Ijaz Butt while talking to Dawn.

He said usually around 2500 patients visited the OPD of the HFH but due to Friday the number of patients was around 2200 patients. They all were provided treatment.

He said RMU professors would run the OPD on Saturday also in case the young doctors continued the strike. However, he said, there was no plan yet to hire the services of private doctors for the OPDs as senior doctors and professors will run the hospitals.

He said the strike had affected patients in the last few days. However, he claimed, there was no problem for patients despite the absence of young doctors.

In BBH and Rawalpindi Teaching Hospital (RTH), the administration failed to run the OPDs. On Friday, some senior doctors tried to run the OPDs but on the objection of YDA office-bearers, they stopped checking patients.

YDA BBH President Dr Aarif Aziz told Dawn that some senior doctors arrived in OPD at the BBH, but “we convinced them and they went back.” He said the strike would continue on Saturday as the government was not interested in talking with doctors over the issue of outsourcing the hospitals.

He claimed that the government wanted to bring doctors from the tehsil headquarters hospitals, but the doctors refused to come to Rawalpindi as patients will suffer in those areas.

He said young doctors were working in emergency departments and wards and serious patients would not suffer. He said operation theatres were also working as scheduled.

He accused the BBH administration of victimising YDA instead of engaging them in talks. “We would not surrender and not allow the government to outsource the hospitals,” he added.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2025