LAHORE, Jan 10: Young doctors of state-run hospitals on Thursday blocked city’s major arteries in protest against the government for taking criminal and departmental actions against their colleagues in the aftermath of the Gujranwala incident and for the provision of service structure.
Scores of young doctors belonging to the Young Doctors Association, Punjab, remained absent from their duties at teaching hospitals to take part in protest.
Since the ‘striking doctors’ had no solid justification for holding protests, they met with an embarrassing situation when they found their large number of senior and young colleagues ‘unmoved’.
YDA activists took rounds of OPDs and indoor departments early on Thursday to convince on-duty doctors for agitation, but they could not muster desired support.
OPDs and indoor departments of various teaching hospitals remained fully functional as senior and most of junior doctors continued providing treatment to patients. All major and minor operations were performed as per the scheduled lists.
Young doctors lodged protests on leading roads of the city by blocking traffic.
Dozens of doctors of the Punjab Institute of Cardiology and Services Hospital marched on the Jail Road and staged a sit-in there.
The traffic remained blocked on all adjoining roads for some two hours in consequence.
A group of about three dozen young doctors from Jinnah Hospital and Sheikh Zayed Hospital blocked one side of the Lahore Canal causing a great deal of inconvenience to motorists who had to wait for hours.
Not more than a dozen doctors of the Lahore General Hospital staged a sit-in at Qainchi intersection and vent their anger on motorists. They did not allow traffic and allegedly misbehaved those who were taking their ailing relatives to hospital.
The situation was not different outside the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital where activists of the YDA blocked traffic in favour of their demands.
It was the only teaching hospital where the OPD remained closed due to the poor administration of its management.
The protesting doctors demanded an impartial inquiry into the Gujranwala incident of torturing senior doctors by YDA activists.
They termed criminal cases against young doctors and departmental proceedings against scores of others an attempt to victimize them for lodging a protest for service structure which, according to them, was still not provided.