OPDs at all hospitals to resume functioning from tomorrow in KP: minister

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai has said that outdoor patient departments of all public hospitals will resume functioning across the province from tomorrow (Saturday).

Addressing a press conference in Peshawar on Friday, Yousafzai said it was the responsibility of the government to provide protection to the doctors performing their duty.

He warned the doctors of strict action if they tried to damage state installations and added that the government was ready to negotiate with the doctors to address their genuine demands.

The minister further said that reforms would be implemented in all sectors including health at all costs.

In the wake of current tense situation, the provincial government has increased the security of all the hospitals. Addition contingents of police and armoured vehicles have been deployed outside Lady Reading Hospital, Khyber Teaching Hospital and others.

Earlier on May 2, Patients had suffered at the out-patient departments (OPDs) of all government-run hospitals in Punjab and KP as young doctors went on strike against the government’s plans to privatise public health facilities.

Paramedical staff and nurses had 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 had staged a protest against the striking doctors.