PESHAWAR, Sept 26: Doctors, who have been on a province-wide strike for 11 days, have warned to withdraw providing emergency cover if the government does not resolve their problems by Thursday.

They are demanding promotion to next grades, accommodation facility, raise in salaries, regularisation of doctors working on contract and retaining services of trainee medical officers in teaching hospitals.

Provincial Doctors Association president Dr Abdul Qadir told Dawn that ministers were deceiving them by making false promises to resolve their problems. On Friday last, he said, finance and health ministers had admitted that their demands were genuine and needed to be resolved soon.

He said the health minister had told them that a summary regarding their demands had been sent to the chief minister, but they had come to know that no such summary had been sent to the CM.

Patients of the Khyber Teaching Hospital, Lady Reading Hospital and the Hayatabad Medical Complex have been suffering because of the strike. Senior doctors said they could not cope with the load of patients due to the strike of medical officers, trainee medical officers and house officers. They said the number of patients needing operation was increasing.

Dr Qadir rejected reports that several patients had died because of the strike. “We provide treatment to critically ill people.”

He said representatives of the association would meet the chief minister’s adviser on Thursday. “If we didn’t receive a positive response from there we will start a complete strike and the responsibility for any untoward incident will rest with the government.”

He regretted that ministers were citing bureaucratic obstacles in redressing their grievances. He said the bureaucracy was subordinate to the ministers, who should make them work.

He said their main demand was reinstatement of 400 doctors, who were recently terminated despite having served in harder stations for 10-15 years. The health minister, he said, had assured them that services of doctors working on contract would be regularised through an ordinance, but it had not been done. The minister had not honoured his promise he had made two months ago that their demands would be met in three weeks, he said.

Dr Qadir said the government had recently appointed 703 doctors through the Public Service Commission, which included 200 trainee medical officers. The government wanted such medical officers transferred to rural areas, which would end their training half-way. Most of them had completed three of the four-year training mandatory for specialisation, he added.

He said house officers, trainee medical officers and medical officers were paid less than their counterparts in the other provinces. He also complained of lack of security in hospitals and said many doctors had been beaten up while on duty.