PESHAWAR, April 27: Doctors doing house job in three provincial teaching hospitals have gone on strike, asking the government to raise their monthly stipends and accept their other demands.

Talking to Dawn, Dr Abdul Aziz, president of the Democratic Doctors Forum (DDF) , said the doctors were forced to go on strike after the government ignored their demands.

Those doing house job at the Lady Reading Hospital, Hayatabad Medical Complex and Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, went on strike on Tuesday against, what they termed, the step-motherly attitude of the government towards them.

Meanwhile those at the Khyber Teaching Hospital have presented a charter of demand to the hospital administration, and the DDF chief said they would also join their striking colleagues on Thursday if their demands were not met by Wednesday.

He said the house officers performed hard duties at the hospitals and the monthly stipend of Rs5,000 was not commensurate with their duties. Besides, the facilities at the hostels were also very bad, he added.

The monthly stipend of the house job doctors be increased to Rs7,000 a month and accommodation facilities improved at the hostels, he said. During the strike, he added, emergency cover would be provided to the critically-ill patients.