LRH doctors’ strike enters second day

PESHAWAR: Hundreds of patients suffered for the second consecutive day on Tuesday as the doctors continued protest at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), paralysing health services at the largest public sector health facility of the province.
The protesting doctors threatened to continue their protest and extend it to other two tertiary care hospitals in the city - Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) - if the government didn’t immediately replace the LRH administration.
The doctors have been on strike since Monday after a clash between trainee medical officers (TMOs) and paramedics over the possession of a residential hostel on hospital premises. The LRH administration blamed the trainee doctors for creating law and order issue by occupying a hostel, which they claimed was built for paramedics.
The doctors and paramedics damaged the hostel building by throwing stones at each other and forcibly suspended health services at the hospital.After sealing the hostel and dispersing the doctors and paramedics following baton charge and tear gas shelling by the police, it was believed that the issue was almost resolved and the hospital staff would return to their duty on Tuesday.
However, it didn’t happen and besides junior doctors, including TMOs, senior registrars, junior registrars and house officers, senior doctors such as professors, associate professors and assistant professors remained absent from attending to patients at the out-patient department (OPD) of the hospital.
A senior official of the Health Department said it was failure of the hospital administration that it didn’t manage to ensure presence of the senior doctors when the junior doctors were on strike.
“Basically it was failure of the hospital administration that it didn’t resolve the hostel issue between the doctors and paramedics and failed to ensure presence of senior doctors in the OPD,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
He said they would recommend departmental inquiry to probe why the senior doctors stayed away from OPD when their junior fellows boycotted duty. The protesting junior doctors staged a demonstration on the hospital premises and went to the OPD block and forcibly suspended health services.
Besides OPD, the protesting doctors suspended all types of services except emergency cover. All the surgical procedures were once again postponed and radiology and pathology departments were kept closed.
They later came out of the hospital and blocked the main road for traffic. Medical Director of LRH Dr Aamir Ghafoor, who is facing unceremonious replacement for his administrative failure, avoided to comment over deteriorating situation of the medical institute.
Hospital Director of the hospital, Dr Laiq Zada, however, told The News that they utilised all available options to peacefully resolve the issue between the two sides but they couldn’t succeed due to inflexible attitude of the doctors and paramedics. He said they lodged FIR of the incident, but didn’t nominate any one in it.
Dr Laiq Zada said they have arranged presence of their medical officers at the main Accident and Emergency Department (A&ED) to provide maximum services to the outdoor patients.
“We have nothing to do with TMOs and can’t force them into attending OPD as they are controlled by the PGMI,” he said. He, however, said that senior doctors should have helped them and continued providing services to the outdoor patients.
On the other hand, junior doctors of three hospitals formed Doctors Action Committee and vowed to continue their protest till the LRH administration was replaced.
“The hospital administration played a very dirty and negative role in this whole issue. They deliberately led this clash in the hospital and didn’t stop the doctors from taking over of the hostel building and allowing paramedics, Class-IV and sweepers to attack the doctors. They are not capable of running this important institution and should be immediately replaced,” Dr Saleem Yousafzai, a spokesman for the Provincial Doctors Association (PDA) said.
He said they had been making hue and cry for the past one year that their accommodation problem should be resolved but the administration didn’t take its note.
“Why the administration didn’t stop the doctors when they entered the hostel. Why they waited for 24 hours? The armed paramedics, Class-IV and sweepers attacked the hostel and physically tortured the doctors and set on fire their books, laptops and blankets,” the PDA spokesman asked.