PESHAWAR: The doctors have asked the government to invoke Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Healthcare Service Providers and Facilities (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2020 against those responsible for violence against medics in Peshawar and Kohat to remove fear among healthcare providers.

Young Doctors Association (YDA) and Provincial Doctors Association (PDA) said in their statements that government should implement the law, passed by the provincial assembly in December last year and award strict punishment to the people involved in resorting to violence in the health facilities.

“We appreciate the government for passage of the law but it needs implementation in true spirit so the doctors feel protection and serve the patients with full devotion,” YDA provincial president Dr Rizwan Kundi said in a statement. He said that attitude of people towards doctors was unfortunate due to which their colleagues worked in stressful environment as a result of which their families also suffered.

The health officials said that about 24 people, armed with pistols, went on rampage in Corona Hospital Nishtarabad after death of a woman and her daughter on Saturday last. The security guards stood silent when the female staff faced extreme violence. A paramedic saved them from the people, who were bent upon violence, they added.

Doctors seek strict action against people involved in attacks on medics

Officials said that two men were arrested after registration of FIR but they were freed after reconciliation with the staff. The 150-bed hospital is run by an NGO, MERF. It plays vital role in management of Covid-19 patients.

The people, who attacked the hospital, have tendered apology and were paying cost of repair of the damage caused to the hospital by them.

“The patients were admitted last week. Their relatives were troublemakers. They told the doctors not to give poisonous injections to kill their Covid-19 patients,” said officials. They also asked other patients to leave the hospital, they added.

According to them, MERF approached police and district administration after which the matter was resolved. “Female staffers ran for safety, first in a room which was broken by enraged people and then in bathroom,” they said.

YDA’s Dr Aftab Marwat said that each and every one was aware of the reality of Covid-19 pandemic and its fatality. “No one is safe from it, doctors and other health care professionals are dying on daily basis due to the pandemic. We should do away with misconceptions about Covid-19 as it has been declared pandemic across the world,” he said.

He said that the patients, who died, were brought to the hospital in serious condition and they were on ventilator. He said that the attackers damaged the government property and threatened on-duty doctors and nurses of dire consequences. They also put the lives of other patients in danger, they added.

PDA in a separate press release asked the government to arrest the people, who resorted to violence against health professionals after death of a patient from cardiac arrest in medical ward of district headquarters hospital Kohat on Monday.

The patient suffered from pneumonia and Covid-19 complication including low oxygen saturation level, but the people damaged property of government and put at risk lives of medical staff, who were busy in serving the patients, it said.

Our correspondent from Kohat adds: The Young Doctors’ Association and faculty members of the KDA Teaching Hospital expressed anguish over the constitution of an inquiry committee by federal state minister Shehryar Afridi to probe the death of a patient due to the alleged negligence of doctors.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, they claimed that a patient suffering from Covid-19 and kidney problem expired three days after he was admitted to the hospital, but his relatives manhandled the doctors and ransacked the premises insisting that he died due to the negligence of the staff.

They alleged that the minister without knowing the facts blamed the doctors for the patient’s death which was uncalled for. They accused the lawmaker of condoning the torture and harassment of doctors by relatives of the patient instead of ensuring the doctors’ protection.

The doctors in the statement said the assistant commissioner and the deputy commissioner reached the scene and controlled the situation, and on their orders, the KDA police arrested the accused.

They regretted that they had long been demanding security, but to no avail.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2021