CHINIOT-Scores of doctors and paramedical staff suspended for absenteeism took out a protest rally against their suspension and forcible closure of community midwives' hostel.
They were led by Dr Ghulam Shabbir; Dr Sohaib and participated by a number of paramedical staff. They took out the protest rally from DHQ Hospital to Deputy Commissioner Office. They held a sit in front of DC Office situated on Chiniot Jhang Road due to which the traffic on the road remained suspended. The rush of traffic was witnessed and about 1 km long queues of vehicles were seen for an hour. However, the traffic police managed to divert the traffic towards the ring roads.
The participants were chanting slogans against their suspension and transfer demanding transfer of the medical superintendent of the DHQ Hospital. Addressing the participants, Dr Sohaib and others alleged that the MS had suspended them illegally and demanded their early restoration.
A number of midwives were also present in the protest. They said the hospital management was forcibly ousting them from the hostel and they have no other place to live in the district.
The doctors later met with DC Ayub Khan who promised to consider their demands on merit. On the assurance, the protestors dispersed peacefully.
On the other hand, DHQ Hospital MD Munir Ahmad told media that when he took over the charge in April this year, the monthly attendance of hospital staff was merely 19% in February 2017 and 26% in March. He took stern action against absenteeism and it rose to 89% last month. During course of time, head nurse Touqir Zainab was suspended due to long absence and misbehaviour with seniors; the services of Dr Farzana were given to disposal of CEO District Health authority due to same reason and Dr Ghulam Shabbir Pathologist was removed from job when the PMU, Lahore Director Operations paid a surprise visit to hospital lab and found 15 blood samples lying on the table without any label or patient name, he disclosed.
Regarding agitation of midwives, he said that midwives were temporarily residing in the rooms of hospital which is not their hostel. The government has planned to establish a burn unit in these rooms so they were given notice to arrange their own residence as they were drawing house rent allowance from the national exchequer. He also added that daily OPD patients were 1,100 in March and now rose to 2,000 after the absenteeism of doctors and paramedical staff minimised.