Young doctors end strike after successful talks with Punjab govt

LAHORE: Young Doctors Association (YDA) called off its strike on Tuesday after successful negotiations with the provincial government, resuming duties at government hospitals across the province, ARY News reported.

Junior doctors had been observing strike at outdoor and indoor patient wards of various public sector hospitals across the province to press for their demands for last 15 days. Throughout their strike, the administration tried to keep wards open, yet patients suffered a lot due to the absences of striking doctors.

Their demands included reinstatement of all the sacked doctors, appointment of ad hoc doctors on permanent basis and reviewing of Centralized Induction Policy.

The provincial health department had sacked more than 70 doctors on the recommendation of disciplinary committees constituted by the administration 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,

Authorities said they were compelled to take this extreme measure since patients were suffering the most. A patient had died at Jinnah Hospital allegedly due to doctors strike. However, YDA denied the allegations, saying, the patient had already died before he was brought to hospital.

A petition against striking doctors was also filed in the Lahore High Court seeking action against them for observing strike.