LAHORE: The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) leaders have said that bureaucracy has failed to run the affairs of the Health Department in Punjab. During a media briefing at the PMA House here on Sunday, PMA President Prof Dr Muhammad Ashraf Nizami, General Secretary Dr Qaiser Sajjad and other officer-bearers showed their deep concern over the government’s “apathy” to the issues raised by the Young Doctors Association (YDA). Quoting the minutes of the PMA’s central meeting – earlier held on Sunday – they said that Health Department should be headed by a doctor. They held health secretary responsible for repeated agitations of young doctors in Punjab in addition to the “inefficient and faulty polices”. The meeting, however, opposed the idea of the YDA to close down emergency wards, they said. The said that the council meeting of the PMA criticised the Punjab government’s decision to bifurcate the Health Department into two legs, saying it had created chaos and administrative anarchy along with the unnecessary financial burden on the government’s exchequer, which subsequently increased problems instead of resolving the issues. “The policy was experimented previously but badly failed,” they said, adding that the central council urged the Punjab government to reverse the decision and merge the departments. They added that the meeting showed its deep concern over the working of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and criticised the council for what they described as its failure to curb malpractices of the private medical colleges regarding fee structure, provision of teaching hospitals and faculty. Published in Daily Times, August 14th 2017.