Young doctors strike enters 3rd day

The Young Doctors Association (YDA), Punjab strike against the government’s alleged indifference towards their demand of service structure has entered third day Wednesday, Geo News reported.

The YDA had shut down the outpatient departments (OPDs) of the public hospitals across the province in protest that caused huge inconvenience to the patients and their attendants.

However, the patients, requiring outdoor treatment, did not visit hospitals in anticipation of the unavailability of healthcare services there. The poor patients received the double blow as reports were received that hundreds of operations were postponed
in hospitals partly due to young doctors’ strike and partly due to loadshedding.

As a result, thousands of patients were left unattended in the indoor wards as well. It belied the claims of the YDA, Punjab, that the young doctors would not hamper treatment in emergency wards, indoor wards and ICUs/CCUs.

The closure of OPDs increased the load of patients in emergency wards, which also affected the quality of treatment to the seriously sick and injured patients.

They strongly criticised doctors for denial of medical treatment as they could not afford the expensive treatment at the private hospitals.

“The doctors, observing a strike, are not only breaching their oath but also trampling on basic rights of patients,” they said. They also criticized the provincial government for failing to resolve the crisis and demanded a stern action against doctors for
their apathetic attitude towards the poor masses.

The Punjab government has shown indifference to resolving the matter and left the patients at the mercy of young doctors who had resorted to their usual tactic of using patients as a shield to influence the government to announce service structure for them.

The administrations of teaching hospitals of Lahore, however, claimed that they had ensured the provision of healthcare services in emergency and indoor wards without any hiccups. “We have also made arrangements to provide outdoor treatment to patients in
emergency wards,” claimed administrative officials of various hospitals.

Meanwhile, the YDA members have vowed to continue their strike until the fulfillment of their demand of service structure in the province. They also condemned the government for playing in the hands of the bureaucracy, backing off from its promises and forcing
doctors to go on strike.

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Posted by Ahmad Mehdi on Jun 20 2012. Filed under Latest News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry