LAHORE, Nov 3: Sufferings of patients visiting public health facilities multiplied on Monday when they were denied even entry to Jinnah Hospital for several hours because of doctors protesting the announcement of a `meager’ pay raise and torture of a lady doctor in Islamabad.
Patients of all public hospitals in the city, especially those of Services Hospital, have been facing great inconvenience since Thursday after doctors went on strike against the arrest of their colleagues.
“I came to the facility to get my child treated for high fever. As no one is allowed to enter the hospital, I have to move to a private clinic for the purpose,” Azim Rafiq from Green Town told Dawn outside Jinnah Hospital, with his four-year-old son Ibrahim in his arms. Like Rafiq several patients who were to visit the OPD of the hospital had to return. However, the patients in critical condition were allowed to make their way to the emergency.
About 50 doctors from various public hospitals reached Jinnah Hospital at around 12noon and raised slogans against the provincial government for increasing the house officers’ stipend ‘just’ by 50 per cent and post-graduate residents by 10 per cent.
They said the government ‘backed out’ of its commitment. They also held responsible some of their seniors for pleading their case ‘weakly’ before the chief minister. They exchanged words with Jinnah Hospital chief executive Prof Javed Akram and some other professors over the issue.
Police were called out there, but they were not ‘ordered’ to disperse the protesters. “It seemed the clash between junior and senior doctors was imminent,” a doctor said. However, the administration managed to handle the situation.
Holding banners and placards, the protesters chided the federal government for not initiating action against people involved in the Islamabad incident. They said that son of a top bureaucrat was involved in ‘severe’ torture of Dr Rifat Pasha therefore police were reluctant to proceed against the responsible.
Prof Javed Akram said nothing better could have been given to young doctors in this hour of financial crisis. He said doctors must be thankful to the chief minister who showed generosity by announcing 50 per cent increase in their stipend. He admitted that patients suffered because of doctors’ protest. He, however, said the administration would ensure that Monday’s incident is not repeated.
In another development, the Young Doctors Association’s executive council dismissed its President Rana Sohail for supporting the chief minister’s package for doctors. The executive council installed Hamid Butt as the association’s new president. However, Sohail said the executive council did not have the mandate to remove him. “Some elements among young doctors are politicising the issue,” he said.
On the other hand, doctors under the banner of the Pakistan Medical Association called off the strike in all major public hospitals in the city after the Lahore High Court restrained police from arresting Services Hospital doctors who were charged with negligence.
Police last week registered a case against four doctors, including a senior registrar, and a nurse for their alleged negligence under section 319 of the Pakistan Penal Code.