KP doctors reopen OPDs at Lady Reading Hospital for 2 days, offering brief relief to patients.

Byline: Sirajuddin

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Doctors Council (KPDC) on Monday announced that the Outdoor Patients Departments (OPD) at the Lady Reading Hospital will open today until tomorrow to facilitate suffering patients. They, however, threatened to resume the strike against the provincial health minister if talks with the chief minister fail.

OPDs at Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), Hayatabad Medical Complex and other government hospitals in Peshawar remained closed.

Due to the strike being held against the alleged thrashing of Khyber Teaching Hospital Assistant Professor Dr Ziauddin Afridi by health minister Hisham Inamullah Khan patients had to turn to private clinics for costly consultation and treatment. The government has repeatedly warned doctors against boycotting duty.

The doctors, who have been on a strike for the past six days, are expected to meet KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on his invitation on Tuesday.

KPDC have demanded that Hisham, as well as representatives of the Insaf Doctors' Forum (IDF), should not be included in the negotiations.

The doctors' association is demanding the removal of Dr Nosherwan Burki, the head of the National Health Task Force, who is behind the introduction of several healthcare reforms in the province. The doctors accuse him of pushing for the privatisation of hospitals claiming that the step would endanger their jobs.

KPDC is also demanding that health minister be removed and a first information report (FIR) be filed against him for allegedly beating Dr Afridi. The police have initiated a probe and recorded the statements of hospital...