Doctors, staff stage protest to seek security

MANSEHRA: The doctors, paramedical and other staff on Tuesday observed a two-hour token strike at the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital to seek foolproof security at the health facilities.

“The attendants of patients often misbehave with doctors, paramedics, nursing staff and other employees but the police have failed to check such crimes,” Grand Health Alliance Chairman Dr Haider Ali Khan told a rally.

The rally, which was taken out from outside the emergency department, culminated at the same point after marching through inside Kath.The rally participants raised slogans in support of their demands and arrest of an accused, who according to them, attacked a doctor a day earlier. And the doctor was rescued by medics and other staff on duty, they added.

Dr Haider said though the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly had passed a law for the protection of the doctors and other health employees, no step had been taken for their security. “Attendants of patients mostly attack doctors and other staff unjustifiably interfering in their duties but escape punishment,” he added.

Earlier in the day, doctors, medics and other staff observed a token strike from 10am to 12am and provided only emergency healthcare services.Meanwhile, the president of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Hazara Division, Malik Farooq, on Tuesday said that the people extended a warm welcome to their leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari during his visit to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“The people in Hazara, Mardan, Peshawar and the rest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa accorded a warm welcome to Bilawal Bhutto during his visit,” he told reporters here.