LAHORE – The General Cadre Doctors Association (GCDA) has decided to start a signature campaign from Thursday (today) to mobilise the medical community and take its opinion on the issue of revised service structure.
The GCDA will obtain signatures from 1,000 doctors, treating them as referendum by the medical community. The decision was taken at provincial council meeting of the GCDA held on Wednesday to discuss the issue of service structure.
Addressing the participants of the meeting, GCDA President Dr Masood Akhtar Sheikh said that the service structure was important for the medical community and all efforts would be made for fulfillment of this legitimate demand.
He informed that the signature campaign would start from Lahore and spread to other parts of the province. “It is an effort to develop consensus regarding general cadre doctors’ demand for the service structure,” he added.
“A service structure with improved chances of career progression for general cadre doctors is the only way to stop the ongoing brain-drain,” said Dr Sheikh, adding that 14,000 general cadre doctors are backbone of the health care system without whose participation the system will collapse.
Dr Sheikh further said that the policies of the previous government had proved detrimental for this cadre and if the deterioration continued, the health delivery system could collapse.