Patients suffer as doctors go on strike in Punjab, KP

LAHORE: Patients suffered at the out-patient departments (OPDs) of all government-run hospitals in Punjab on Thursday as young doctors went on strike against the government’s plans to privatise public health facilities.

Paramedical staff and nurses shut down the OPDs of public hospitals in all major cities, including Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Sargodha, and Faisalabad, to protest the proposed privatisation of the hospitals.

Enraged at the closure of the OPDs of public hospitals in Rawalpindi, patients staged a protest against the striking doctors.

The Young Doctors Association (YDA) said it won’t allow the government to privatise government hospitals and vowed to continue strike until their demands are not met.

Meanwhile, the doctors continued their strike for a second straight day on Thursday at all government hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against the proposed privatisation.

The protesting doctors forcefully closed the OPDs of Lady Reading Hospital Peshwar and forced the doctors performing their duties to go out of the wards to take part in the protest.

The doctors also took out a rally and threatened to close all health services, including emergency wards, if any action is taken against the protesting doctors.