Patients suffer as doctors’ strike continues

The Baloch Hal News

QUETTA: Doctors continued their boycott from Outdoor Patients’ Wards (OPDs) in all the major hospitals in Balochistan on the 24^th consecutive day on Thursday in protest against kidnapping and killing of doctors.

The doctors did not perform their duties in protest from 9 a.m. to 12 noon in support of their demand and immediate recovery of the kidnapped doctors. The protesting doctors had decided to extend their protest for another week as the Government is insensitive to the killing and kidnapping of highly qualified doctors.

The patients, particularly hailing from remote areas of the province, facing great difficulties due to the strike by doctors and they have to wait for hours to have medical checkup. “I have come from Kuchlak, some 25-kilometer from here, and have been waiting for doctors,” Qudratullah, a patient sitting at Bolan Medical College Teaching Hospital told this scribe. He said there is lack of medical facilities in remote areas thus we come to this provincial Capital for better treatment facilities.

Another patient, Ghulam Rasool, belonging to Mastung, some 50-kilometers from Quetta, also complained about the strike of doctors. He said the government should take measures to resolve the doctors’ problems. He said he had to pay heavy sum of money as transportation cost and his day gone waste because some time doctors do not resume their duties as they are on strike in support of their demands.

The situation in Bolan Medical College Teaching Hospital and Government Sandman Hospital is similar where patients facing hardship in absence of doctors. “I can not afford to pay the fee of a doctor in his private clinic and appeal to the government to resolve the issue,” said Murtaza Mohammad, who came along with his family members to visit the doctor in Civil Hospital Quetta.

A meeting of Baloch Doctors Forum held a day earlier in which they decided that the protest would continue for another week and further course of action would be decided in the next meeting. The meeting deplored that none of the missing doctor was traced and released.

“Doctors would not perform their duties in such circumstances during which their lives are in danger,” they said in statement.