LAHORE – Members of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) continue their boycott of major public hospitals across Punjab on the fourth day of their strike.
Patients seeking medical aid continue to suffer as most government hospitals are without adequate staff.
Negotiations between the government and the YDA leaders failed to end the stalemate on Thursday.
YDA members have boycotted hospitals in Lahore, Gujrat, Faisalabad and Rahim Yar Khan, among other cities, as part of their strike.
Later in the day, the government swung into action and suspended from duty eight doctors who have gone on strike.
On Wednesday, at least four people were reported to have died at Allied Hospital, Faisalabad owing to the YDA strike.
Doctors’ demands:
The doctors are demanding that the provincial health secretary, Najam Ahmad Shah, be removed from his position and the Central Induction Policy introduced by him, be revoked. They believe that since the health secretary is an engineer he is unable to relate to or understand issues of the health department.
According to the protesting doctors, Central Induction Policy discriminates between the ones who have graduated from government institutes and those who have received their education from private ones. Since the majority of the doctors have graduated from private medical colleges, they want the policy to be revoked and an equal system be set for all.
