Patient dies as YDA strike continues in Lahore

LAHORE: A patient lost his life on early Wednesday morning as Young Doctors Association (YDA) continued to observe a strike in out-patient departments (OPDs) of government hospitals. 

The deceased’s family staged a protest against the doctors outside the Services Hospital, Lahore and alleged that Muhammad Hussain hailing from Ghaziaabad, was not given medical care by the doctors due to the strike.

According to reports, the situation became worse at the hospital where the protesters closed the emergency ward, slip counter, OPD as well as the inpatient and outpatient facilities of the hospital. Similar conditions prevailed in other wards.

Reports suggest that negotiations between Young Doctors Association (YDA) and Punjab government have failed to reach a common ground.

Anti-corruption team raids Services Hospital

The young doctors have been protesting the raid by a team of anti-corruption officials, who had come to arrest Dr. Atif and Dr. Salman. According to Anti Corruption Establishment Punjab, the two doctors are wanted for corruption allegations.

The two doctors had allegedly built a canteen in Services Hospital without getting its permission from provincial health department or getting its PC-I approved. The ACE team sought to arrest one of the doctors, Dr. Atif, who was said to be present at Services Hospital during the raid.

During the raid, a scuffle ensued between ACE officials and YDA members. In response to this, both the parties filed separate complaints at Shadman police station.

In their complaint, YDA representative Dr. Salman stated that ACE officials, dressed in plain clothes, unleashed violence on young doctors.

ACE complaint, filed by Assistant Director Umer Maqbool, stated the team was sent to arrest two doctors wanted on charges of corruption. A case had already been registered against them. However, the doctors attacked the ACE team, the complaint read.

In response to the raid, the YDA called a strike. The doctors alleged that a fake case had been registered against their colleagues. The emergency ward of Services Hospital has been closed for more than 12 hours.

The brunt of this tug-of-war between YDA and government has been borne by poor patients, who continue to wait for doctors to treat them.

Police have also been deployed at the hospitals to ensure that the situation does not escalate.

MAYO hospital

Meanwhile, a fight broke out between YDA representatives and Mayo Hospital’s Additional Medical Superintendent (AMS) Tariq Aijaz and security in-charge.

The AMS and security in-charge, tired of the closed OPD, had gone to open it when young doctors misbehaved with the them. This led the security in-charge to call security to control the situation.