LAHORE, June 4: The province-wide protest by paramedics for service structure intensified on Monday after health authorities reportedly threatened the agitators to refer their ‘case’ to the police if the strike was not called off immediately, it is learnt.

The warning was issued at a last meeting held between health department senior officials and a 20-member delegation of the Punjab Paramedics Alliance Class-IV at Civil Secretariat on Thursday.

Presided over by Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafique, it was the first and last serious dialogue held between the two sides so far since the paramedics had kicked off its protest drive in three phases on May 2.

Meanwhile, the Young Doctors Association was also preparing for another agitation, a source said.

In the first phase, it would hold a ‘grand convention’ of all the young doctors to alert the Punjab government. The step was being planned as the service structure proposed by nine-member committee had not been materialised and the deadline given by the government in this regard would end on June 7.

The committee comprised Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, secretaries of law and parliamentary affairs, regulation, finance, and prosecution, representatives of Pakistan Medical Association, Medical Teachers Association and YDA. Khwaja Salman Rafique was its convener.

On the other hand, the YDA had finalised convention at Services Hospital on June 7. However, it was postponed owing to unknown reasons and the next date and venue for the convention would be announced within a couple of days, the source said.

A PPA central leader, Rehmat Sindhu, told Dawn: “It was shocking to us when the government officials on Thursday warned of referring the ‘case’ of service structure for paramedics to the police instead of forwarding it to the chief minister for consideration.”

He said the PPA leaders were expecting a sympathetic hearing by the government representatives towards their legitimate demands after a month-long protest. The PPA was informed in the meeting that the Punjab government needed Rs1.5 billion to bring all paramedics working in state-run health facilities under a service structure and the funds were not available.

The PPA leaders, however, kept on insisting for allocations for the service structure and other demands. On finding the visiting delegation `insensitive’, one of the government officials warned of criminal action against them, the PPA leader claimed.

“If the case was referred to the chief secretary, home secretary and the police, then the health department would be helpless to play its role,” quoting the government official Sindu said.

When contacted Health Special Secretary Dawood Khan Bareach ruled out police action saying that the paramedics were employees of the health department and not ‘criminals’.

He said the negotiation process with them was under way and the matter would be resolved soon.

In response to the ‘threat’, the paramedics put up a massive show on Monday by observing a complete strike at the public sector hospitals all over the province followed by dozens of rallies in the scorching heat.

The central command of the PPA circulated a message to its district-wise office-bearers to intensify protests in their respective areas even amid reports that agitation had starting taking heavy toll on patients and the entire health system.

The ‘silence’ of the health authorities over the sorry state of affairs at the major hospitals of the Punjab capital also sparked some protests among the hapless patients who were denied treatment, diagnostic facilities and free medicines.

Most affected among the major teaching hospitals of the city are: Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) where OPD, operation theatres, laboratory and other facilities remained closed for the patients owing to full-day strike by the paramedics.

“At least 2,000 patients returned on Monday without getting free medicines from the OPD of the PIC,” source told this reporter.

He said around 55 angiographies and 33 angioplasties were postponed and seven open heart (coronary artery bypass, or CABG) surgeries were also delayed the same day due to the strike of the paramedics at the PIC.

The poor patients who were denied free medicines at the OPD later blocked Jail Road for an hour to protest the closure of the department.

Similarly, hundreds of patients were also denied treatment at other teaching hospitals after the paramedics withdrew their services and took out rallies and staged sit-ins.