LAHORE, June 23: Young doctors continued agitation on Saturday by denying treatment to the patients at outpatient departments of state-run hospitals.
The patients continued to suffer owing to the closure of outpatient departments.
According to sources, doctors at emergency departments of teaching hospitals have stopped admission of the OPD patients requiring treatment through surgical intervention.
This unethical practice has been going on unchecked and the hospital administrations have turned a deaf ear to the miseries of the patients to avoid ‘wrath’ of the striking doctors, the sources said.As the Pakistan Medical Association and the Medical Teachers Association, Punjab, have extended full support to the striking doctors, the Punjab chapter of the Young Doctors Association has decided to intensify its agitation from Monday (tomorrow) to further mount pressure on the government in favour of their demands.A YDA office bearer said the doctors would set up protest camps outside OPDs from Monday. In order to encourage young doctors, the PMA will announce its further course of action in a press briefing on Sunday (today) at the PMA House.
A source said the health department at the early stage of young doctors’ strike had decided to give a financial relief to the medics through a give-and-take strategy. But later it decided to delay the incentives when it calculated the financial impact of total financial incentives demanded by the representatives of medical organisations which was, according to the health authorities, beyond apprehension.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Young Doctors Association office bearers said doctors were the most under-paid professionals in the country and the salaries of doctors in Pakistan were less than the doctors of neighboring countries.
They said the Punjab government had allocated Rs17 billion in the budget to build new hospitals and medical colleges without allocating a single penny for the doctors’ service structure and special salary package.
They claimed there was not even a single vascular surgeon, rheumatologist and ICU specialist in any public sector hospital of Punjab. On the other hand, the government was focusing only to improve the health care infrastructure, they said.
They said some 2,000 doctors had left the country in search of better salary package last year, and there was an acute shortage of doctors in the province.
YDA office bearers expressed concern over the fact that the Punjab government was wrongly projecting in the media that doctors were highly paid among other government servants. They said the government should immediately release Rs6 billion initially demanded by the doctors to end strike.
The YDA said Rs760 million were required to raise the stipend of 5,000 house officers and postgraduate trainees and Rs860 million to raise the grade of all doctors. The rest was required to raise the health professional allowance and non-practicing allowance.