PESHAWAR: The Young Doctors` Association, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has condemned the baton charge and arrest of members of Grand Health Alliance by the Punjab government for protesting the proposed privatisation of hospitals.

Addressing a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday, YDA spokesman Dr Hafeez Orakzai said that the doctors in Punjab were protesting for the sake of patients, but they were subjected to violence.

`We stand with them, and recognise their demands as legitimate. The Punjab government should accept their demands,` he said.

Flanked by other members of YDA, Dr Orakzai alleged that since 2018, vacancies of doctors hadn`t been filled through Public Service Commission, and the recent 120 contract posts announced by the government weren`t suffice given the number of unemployed medics in the province.

The YDA leader said that there had beennoincreaseinthesalariesoftrainee medical officers (TMOs) and house officers (HOs) for four years despite high inflation, and demanded immediateincrease in their salary. `Despite providing services to the patients on Sehat Card Plus, HOs and TMOs aren`t being given share from the income generated through the scheme,` he said.

He also showed concern about the shortage of accommodation for HOs and TMOs in hospitals, and demanded increase in their allowance from Rs15,000 to Rs30,000.

He said that since 2015, irregularities in financial matters, appointments, promotions, political interference and nepotism had come to light in MTI hospitals, but no inquiry was ordered. He also sought introduction of a merit-based system in the health department appointments to ensure transparency.

According to him, none of the 19 hospitals outsourced to private organisations under the public-private partnership initiative had shown improvement and employees of these facilities hadn`t been getting salary for past seven months. He demanded of the government to scrap the initiative and pay the pending salaryto the employees.

Bureau