MULTAN - Police contingents were deployed at different hospitals of Multan as the doctors continued their strike for 13th consecutive day on Saturday. The Outdoor Patient Departments (OPDs) of Nishtar Hospital, Children Complex, Dental College, Civil Hospital and other health facilities remained shut because of the strike. Hundreds of poor patients were stranded in the lawns of hospitals as the doctors disappeared from the OPDs.

“For God sake come back and don’t multiply our miseries,” one Allah Ditta, a resident of Khan Garh, requested the doctors.
 “I am coming here for the third consecutive day but I could not get my son examined. I am a poor labourer and I earn Rs200 a day while I have spent Rs500 on fare,” he added.
The doctors are on strike on the call given by Young Doctors Association (YDA). The YDA had warned the government that the medics would go on strike across the province from June 18 if their service structure was not announced.
On the other hand, the YDA representatives were of the opinion that the strike was not meant to get salaries raised.
“The advertisement campaign launched by the Punjab Government is wrong. We’re not protesting against low wages rather we’re demanding our basic right of service structure,” said Dr Irfan. He added that service structure was a sort of security to prevent good doctors from moving around. “It’s in benefit of patients.
If they have good doctors around them, they’ll get good treatment,” he added.
The other YDA representatives lashed out at the Punjab Government and said that Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif backed out of his commitments.
They claimed that the provincial government had made a promise with the doctors one year back that their service structure would be implemented within one month but the promise was not materialized as yet. They warned that the protest would continue till acceptance of demands.
 “We’re not afraid of police or jails. We’ll not call off our strike come what may.”