LAHORE: The Young Doctors Association (YDA), Punjab, has announced a protest drive from March 31 to register their anger over government`s apathy towards medical education and health care issues.

The association will block roads from March 31 in Lahore and some districts of the province. YDA leaders Dr Amir Bandesha, Dr Tajamul Butt and Dr Shabbir Chaudhry shared the plan with reporters at a press conference at Jinnah Hospital on Saturday.

The announcement comes against the backdrop of some inconclusive meetings between the YDA delegation and health department officials.

Dr Bandesha said the YDA had been forced to take the step after the health bureaucracy had turned a deaf ear to their requests over some controversial pollcies which had adversely affected the promotion matters of medics. The polices had also impacted the working of public hospitals.

As the government did not show seriousness to resolve the issue, the only option left with doctors is resort to protests.

`We`ve planned to block major roads of mega districts of the province from March 31 to pressure the government top resolve our genuine demands,` he said.

The policy deemed `controversial` include the stoppage salaries of over 300 pay-purpose post-graduate trainees/regular medical officers. He said those doctors had completed 80 to 90 per cent of training at major medical institutions but the authorities, through a notification, stopped their salaries f rom March.

`These medics were asked to take extraordinary leave without pay to complete their training,` Dr Bandesha said. The sudden controversial policy has clearly reflected the incompetence of health department officials, he said.

He added more than 1,200post-graduate trainees were already working in public hospitals without pay and the health department had refused to listen to the unpaid medics.

He said the health department had recently claimed to have created 10,200 seats in government hospitals for doctors. `The department is misleading the public through distorted facts,` Dr Bandesha said, adding no notification was issued regarding the creation of new posts for medics.

He said dental cadre doctors had been awaiting promotions for the last 20 years or so. The department also denied promotion to the medics according to an earlier agreed service structure.

`Another disturbing fact is that the health department has blatantly violated the fourtier promotion formula for doctors formulated by relevant stakeholders,` Dr Bandesha said. He said the Punjab government had also failed to continue free treatment for the patients in public hospitals all over the province.

`We`ve presented some facts to the health department in recent meetings about shortage of life-saving medicines and closure of many facilities at major teaching hospitals but nothing was done to address these issues,` he said.

The YDA also highlighted several health projects awaiting completion such as Surgical Tower at Mayo Hospital, Punjab Institute of Neuro Sciences at Lahore General Hospital, Burn Centre at Jinnah Hospital and Fatima Jinnah Dental Institute.

YDA leaders said health department`s indifference towards the demands of doctors and patients had forced the YDA activists to launch the protest drive.

`The doctors will block major roads of the provincial capital, including Jail Road, Lahore Canal Road, Ferozepur Road and the Mall besides leading arteries inother districts from March 31,`he said.

The schedule of protest would be shared later, he said.