Hospitals staff withdraw services from indoor wards.

LAHORE -- The employees of the public sector teaching hospitals, including young doctors, have withdrawn services from indoor wards after the Punjab government intensified crackdown by terminating services of many of their colleagues.

The situation was said to be disturbing, particularly in Lahore's mega teaching institutions where healthcare reached an alarming level when all employees, including young doctors, nurses and paramedics refused to join duties.

The operations have been suspended, diagnostic facilities shut down, and the healthcare restricted to the emergency units only.

The employees were protesting against enforcement of the Medical Teaching Institutions Ordinance 2019.

The prime concern of the [striking] employees was that the Punjab government wanted to privatise the state-run hospitals under the MTI Ordinance. However, the government rejected their claim stating the institutions were being given autonomous status and declared the young doctors 'main culprit' for instigating other employees by distorting facts.

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However, hundreds of patients in teaching hospitals have been left unattended when the employees withdrew their services from indoors.

Earlier, they had been observing strike at the OPDs of government hospitals all over the province for the last three weeks or so.

The disturbing fact of the ongoing strike was that the senior doctors are also 'indirectly supporting' the striking employees.

In Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore, the young doctors not only pulled out of the indoors and cardiac care units but also [allegedly] instigated their colleagues, who were not willing to leave patients at risk, because of [cardiac] complications.

Sources said only...