Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
1

One hand he is setting up protesting camps and whatnot…and imposing 144 against doctors specifically. threatening to fire all of them, started a media campaign, spending millions on newspaper ads in which the govt is behaving like some petty mohallay ki aurat saying doctors are bad govt is good etc etc…

what the hell is wrong with this guy??

why does the punjab govt have issues with setting up service structure for the doctors?
spedning billions on laptop, doubling the beghairat police’s salary…imprisoning the doctors??*

  • Section 144 imposed at all public hospitals

  • Doctors to be banished if they refuse to resume work

  • YDA rejects enforcement of Essential Services Act, vows to continue strike until demands are met

  • Law minister says doctors not sincere with their profession

By Imran Chaudhry

LAHORE: **The Punjab government’s preparations are in full swing to curtail the power of young doctors, as a large number of policemen has been deputed at all public hospitals and Section 144 imposed to combat protesting doctors.
**
Meanwhile, the Young Doctors’ Association (YDA) continued its strike on the 12th consecutive day on Friday in outpatient departments (OPDs) of all government hospitals across Punjab.

The Punjab government had given the YDA three days to end strike. Friday was the second day, and the deadline expires tonight (Saturday).

The government clearly said that doctors would face stern action if they did not end the strike, but the doctors are still unavailable at hospitals and busy protesting.

The Punjab government on Thursday issued a notification for one-year imprisonment for absentee doctors. The YDA rejected the enforcement of the Essential Services Act and vowed to continue the strike until the fulfillment of their demands.

**Meanwhile, the capital city police officer (CCPO) said that Section 144 had been imposed at all public hospitals on the directive of the provincial government. **

He said that police contingent had also been deputed at hospitals to maintain law and order. He said that policemen would provide security to patients as well as doctors performing their duties. He said that the police would take stern action against those trying to create problems.

Meanwhile, the YDA said that the salary of a Grade-17 doctor was Rs 42,000 to Rs 44,000 per month with all allowances, and the salary of a Grade-18 doctor was Rs 52,000 to Rs 54,000, which is contrary to the claims of the Punjab government, which presented false figures regarding the salaries of doctors in the media.

According to the government, the salary of a Grade-17 doctor is Rs 60,000 to Rs 76,000, and that of a Grade-18 doctor is Rs 61,000 to Rs 136,000.

Young doctors said that if bureaucrats would have simply seen the pay slip of doctors before giving the so-called facts in the media, they would never had made such a big mistake.

The YDA office-bearers said the government was totally being misled by the bureaucracy, and bureaucrats were trying to start a confrontation between the Punjab government and doctors.

The doctors had demanded the chief minister to take personal interest in the matter and ask senior ministers to negotiate with doctors and accept their just demands.

On the other hand, thousands of patients across the province are suffering due to the strike. The patients and their relatives visiting hospitals also staged protests against the continuous strike of young doctors. However, the paramedics of different teaching hospitals said that patients coming to OPDs were being attended at emergency wards.

Meanwhile, Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique has urged the protesting doctors to tread the path of negotiations instead of holding strikes for the resolution of issues they face. He said that strikes by young doctors had become a nuisance for the poor patients, adding the young doctors’ strike was against the esteem of their profession.

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, however, termed the YDA’s demands as “invalid and uncalled for”.

He said that the protesting doctors were not sincere with their profession. “No one will be allowed to let patients suffer and go on strike,” he said.

*http://videos.geo.tv/VideoGallery.aspx?ID=6732

2

re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

Shahbaz Shareef is doing perfectly right.

The leeches or young doctors should be put in the same law as soldiers meaning they can't strike, Period.

These freaking young doctors are leeches first government subsidize their education and then they blackmail even when their pay is higher then similar grade holders. Fire all of them, cancel there degrees.
Import doctors from Sri Lanka but this blackmailing must be stop at any cost.

3

re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

Shahbaz Sharif has taken too long to act. Doctors should not be allowed to strike at all, not even for a day. All the patients visiting govt hospitals are lower middle class folks, who usually travel from far flung places to Lahore for a check up by a supposedly better doctor at a better hospital with better facilities. These young doctors have disgraced the profession by striking, leaving countless people without basic medical care. Who knows, many people may have even died because of the neglect of these heartless people.

I am all for banning all these strikers. Their salaries are more than salaries of doctors from all other provinces. I dont know what makes them extra special. Plus, didnt they just strike last year and get a pay raise? Now they are asking for a 'pay structure', which means, they want to be paid the same wages as those doctors working at private hospital, and get their salaries incremented every year in an obscene manner, which is an implied threat, saying that if you dont approve it, we will be striking every year.. I say, if you want to be paid the same as private hospitals, then go work at private hospital.
In the meantime, I hope their medical licenses get cancelled.

4

re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

They have.

I know at least 3 people who died, as reported in the media.

5

Is it fair Act by Young Doctors ???

Ofcourse this is not fair, these pathetic characters are getting much higher salary and getting subsidized eduction on very cheap fee as compare to all around the world. Shame for these creatures …

All of the above are 100% right and these bloody doctors have no right to play with the live of innocent people. they should be hanged or at least fire from their jobs. All of us know their behavior with patients in Govt hospitals ans till they want more money ?

6

Re: Is it fair Act by Young Doctors ???

CJ should take soumotu against these doctors even people should attack on their rally and beat them like dogs.

7

Re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

Their demands are totally unreasonable. Glad govt fired them all.

Army comes to the rescue as Punjab sacks protesting doctors | DAWN.COM

0

This photo from June 29, 2012 shows a man returning unattended with his sick child as the OPD of a public hospital in Faisalabad remained closed due to the strike called by the Young Doctors’ Association (YDA). —Photo by Online

LAHORE: The deadlock between the Punjab government and the protesting Young Doctors’ Association (YDA) took a dramatic turn Saturday as the government reached a decision to sack all doctors on strike.

However, the administration may have found a temporary solution to the severe healthcare crisis being faced by the province.

Upon Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s request, the Army has announced that it will give 150 of its doctors to the provincial government to cover up for those on strike.

The Army doctors will start their services from Sunday, and will be performing their duties in uniform at the public hospitals.

According to the military spokesperson, doctors of the armed forces will not bear responsibility for operational matters, which would be handled by the provincial government.

Government hospitals in Punjab, the country’s most densely populated province, have been facing a critical shortage of medical workers since the YDA started its protest. As a result, poor patients, who were left unattended, have had to bear the brunt of the strike at public hospitals across the province for the last 13 days.

**The Punjab government had increased the salaries of the doctors last year but they also demanded improvement in service structure too. The doctors demanded their recruitment directly into Basic Pay Scale (BPS-18) besides facilities including house, telephone, five advance increments, two special allowances for professors – teaching allowance and health professional allowance – both equal to their running basic salary.

They also demanded soft loans for cars for BPS-18 doctors, 1,000cc cars with petrol and driver for BPS-20 and 1,300cc vehicles for all doctors in BPS-21 with driver and petrol.

“The financial position of the provincial government does not allow us to increase the salaries and fringe benefits of doctors especially seniors who were already earning more from their private clinics and hospitals,” Special Assistant to the Punjab Chief Minister for Health, Khawaja Salman Rafique had told Dawn earlier this week. “If accepted, the demands will cost the government an additional Rs17 billion in non-development expenditure.”**

Earlier on Thursday, the Punjab government had also invoked the Essential Services Act of 1958 for Health Department employees. Under the act, the doctors are bound to be present at the place of duty and any violation is considered a crime, he said.

Opposition urges Shahbaz to resolve issue through dialogue

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz Ahmad has urged Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif to resolve the issue of young doctors through dialogue.

Talking to the media outside the Governor’s House on Saturday, he said that threatening of imprisonment and imposing section 144 on doctors had exposed the authoritarian thinking of the Punjab CM.

He warned the Punjab government that the situation could worsen if the doctors were tortured or sent to jails as they were assets of the nation and they could not be cornered through stubborn attitude.

He urged the doctors and the CM to make their attitude flexible for the sake of poor patients.

8

Re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

I'm glad gov't fired their a$$es. Hopefully they'll go all the way and revoke their licences as well.

All students in government colleges should be made to sign an agreement that they'll serve in government hospitals for a certain period of time after the completion of their studies preferably at a lower salary. This way the goverment could recoup some of it's money.

9

Re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

People in public service providing critical services should NOT have the option to blackmail the public at large whether for salary or other issues. Yes, the provincial Govt. needs to look after the welfare of its employees, especially those providing critical services so they can continue to serve the public, but at the same time all such situations should be avoided before they halt the system and make headlines.

Doctors' decision to selfishly go on boycott does not bode well for the profession they chose.

10

Re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

shameless attitude ... seriously, their license should be revoked!

Thanks to Army doctors, who have come to rescue.

11

Re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

All of you are ganging up on doctors but let me remind you a few things.

Government does not subsidise medical education only, it subsidises all education, so all engineers, technicians, BAs, MAs, Pharmacists etc should also be made to sign that they shud work for government on salaries decided by the government.

Secondly, they do have a point that Shehbaz Sharif is throwing away billions of rupees on laptops but cannot add to budget of health ministry.
Other government employees may get bit less salary than doctors but the working hours for junior doctors is double than that of other government employees.

12

Re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

^ My brother is working as a government doctor, and while the government has increased the salaries during the past few years but they are not over 60000 as the government is portraying in its advertidements. Secondly at the moment only the OPD's are closed, emergency is being attended. The situation is not entirely as the government is portraying it to be. The doctors work really long hours and basically their demand is to have a service structure (like hiring, promotions etc) like the rest of the govt employees, as most of them come as grade 17 and retire at the most grade 18. The attitude of the government towards the health department has forced over 5000 doctors to leave the country and if they dont make the situation conducive for them many more would leave. At the end it would be Pakistan's loss.

13

Re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

  1. Doctors are not forced to work for government and they should not be. If they do, they should accept the terms and conditions offered when they accepted the job, like any other organization.

  2. Engineers cannot really do 'private practice' while in government jobs.

  3. Heavy working hours for doctors are a training for them that most doctors in the west can only dream of. Most of the doctors I know prefer government jobs at the start of career because they have so many opportunities to learn at the job and make contacts for their future private practice.

One might think that if conditions are so bad, why most of the intelligent and bright students still prefer going to a medical school in Pakistan. They do get quality education and opportunities in future (having established a private practice) are fantastic. I can compare financial position of an average doctor in Pakistan in his/her 50s who has been working for government for years to that of an engineer working same number of years for government. The gap is HUGE, unless the engineer has 'other means' of income ;-)

Young doctors have been taking initial difficult years of work at government hospitals as training on the job for decades now. I don't know what really has changed so suddenly.

14

Re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

main teri nazar ka suroor hoon, tujhe yaad ho ke na yaad ho:)

15

Re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

I am sorry but I really beg to differ on this. Leeches? Not very polite !

72 hours of continuous duty with just 12 hours in b/w every week ...is this humane? and SHO are being paid only Rs. 23-30,000 !? How fair is that? Let them take the easy way out to and run off to some other countries like the rest of us have done to feed their families...and be leeches for real I guess.

shahbaz sharif is being crazy in this case.

16

Re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

Lagta hay yeh daktar, Showbaz ki band bajha dengay.

17

Re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

I absolutely agree. The cream of the doctors is already making way to the US, UK and Middle East. The poor ones who decide to stay there are just ridiculed by the media and the general public. Last year they had the similar strike...the news channels kept blaring against the drs. when the hue and cry went down and the Punjab Govt. so called agreed to them, nobody even bothered reporting that the demands weren't completely fulfilled. I haven't seen any report on the media about the good work the doctors do day and night.

And it's important to note tht currently ONLY the OPDs are shut down..Emergencies are being fully attended to. All they are demanding is a service structure and i don't see anything wrong with that. why should doctors after at least 10 years of studies and loads of exams be on contractual basis only in Govt. hospitals?

and it's just not Pakistan but all over the world doctors and healthcare professionals have gone on strike. Even just recently here in the UK the doctors were on strike against British medical Association's certain reforms.

the pay they have been bleating about is a blatant lie. Payslips are available on their YDA page to show their real salary.

AND no I don't belong to the YDA nor am I in Pakistan at the moment but I know for sure what's going on there because I have friends, cousins everybody working there.

18

Re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

Its only been a few years that trainees are being paid.

Engineers also take up private work
Number of doctors in west is regulated, each graduate is guaranteed a place for training, actually there are more training jobs available in west than the number of their medical graduates, thats why you have foreign graduates filling up the posts.
Why people still apply for medicine, i don't know, i will not put my kids into medicine. Its a highly stressed job with long working hours, continuous training. Money paid is not worth the effort doctors put in.

19

Re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

**LAHORE: The Punjab Government’s Health Department has decided to terminate the doctors on strike, along with blacklisting them from taking up any position in public services in the future, Express News reported Sunday night.

**Senior doctors held two rounds of talks with the young doctors, during the day and in the evening, but the doctors refused to end the strike, after which the senior doctors told the government to take the next required course of action.

The Punjab government has decided to appoint 1000 medical officers on Monday. A list of those doctors has been acquired from the Public Service Commission (PSC) by Secretary Health. Walk-in interviews will be held on Monday and Tuesday.
**
YDA strike: Punjab government to terminate doctors – The Express Tribune**

20

Re: Shahbaz Sharif vs Doctors

Congrats to all Doctors on strike, they managed to kill a 1.5 year old baby, one girl and one women!!! Please continue with your strike, so what if people dies, they are going to die anyway, if it was not these doctors, then there might have been some other reasons!!! Death is reality and it have to come to everyone...

I hope these doctors suffers from the same pain the family of 1.5 years old baby is suffering... i hope someday these doctors also become helpless as the women who got heart attack was refused all the medical aid by these educated and brilliant doctors, i just pray that these doctors watch a beloved child of their family suffer the fate that girl in FSD suffered, the girl died because doctors were on strike, the strike was not because they wanted some better medicines and equipment and other bio-tech facilities to facilitate patients, they were on strike because they want more money!!! they want car with a driver, they want house allowance and they want everything which other members of society gets when they have spent some 10 good years in their profession, these brilliant doctors wants them in their 1st or 2nd year of service... and if few dozen people dies, if few hundred develop some complexity in their sickness and as long as these few hundred or dozen people are not from privileged class, these doctors are willing to sacrifice them for their personal benefits!!!

Hail to young doctors, lets us the people the tax-payers pay for their expensive study ( remember a very tiny percentage of privileged class bother to pay taxes), let them become doctors without doing additional part-time jobs, let them become doctor and have all the perks for free!!!!