Daily Times

LAHORE: The Young Doctors Association (YDA) has announced to call off their strike after successful negotiations with the Punjab government on Tuesday.

“Negotiations with the Health Department turned out to be fruitful,” said YDA office-bearer Dr Maroof during in a media briefing at the end of their protest that started 15 days ago.

He said that the association’s activists had resumed their duties in the indoor and outdoor departments of all public hospitals. It was also decided that doctors would not stop their duties in emergency wards across the province in any situation.

The YDA also appreciated Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique as well as Health Secretary Najam Ahmad Shah for accepting their demands, including reinstatement of all the sacked doctors, appointment of ad hoc doctors on a permanent basis and reviewing of Centralised Induction Policy. The other demands like ‘one bed, one patient’ policy, hospital security issue and availability of life-saving drugs in all government hospitals across the province were also considered.

Earlier, the YDA continued their protest at all teaching hospitals across Punjab. The elective surgeries and services at out-patient departments (OPD) also remained suspended on account of the doctor’s protest.

The Health Department had sacked more than 70 doctors on the recommendation of disciplinary committees constituted by the administrations of healthcare institutions to create deterrence against the practice of observing strikes at hospitals, which was taking heavy toll on patients.

The sacked doctors belonged to various hospitals, including Lahore General Hospital, Jinnah Hospital, Services Hospital Lahore, Shaikh Zayed Hospital Rahim Yar Khan, Allied Hospital Faisalabad and Aziz Bhatti Hospital Gujrat.

On Sunday, the association had threatened to stop work at emergency departments of all public hospitals from Tuesday (today) if the government did not take any step to accept the demands. According to the YDA spokesperson, the Health Department assured the YDA that it would review the induction policy, under which the induction of postgraduate trainees is made through a merit determination formula instead of interviews.

Published in Daily Times, August 16^th 2017.