LAHORE: At a time when the Services Hospital is facing wrath of the Young Doctors Association, another group of the association in Mayo Hospital allegedly took law into their hands for the second consecutive day on Thursday, attacked and harassed the women pharmacists and locked the purchase section of the hospital.

The situation turned precarious to the extent that the YDA men chased the women pharmacists to the office of the chief executive officer (CEO) of the hospital where they rushed to seek shelter.

The eyewitnesses said the situation was averted for a brief period when the CEO took it seriously and gave a warning to the attacking YDA men that he would lodge a criminal case against them if they harmed the women employees who were trembling with fear after the attack by the young medics.

An official said the YDA men were demanding records of the procurement of the medicines from the pharmacists and they turned offensive when the women staff refused to accept their demand. He said the staff members of the procurement section told the young doctors that the department’s record was a domain of the administration and they were not authorised to hand it over to the YDA members.

Same group had attacked AMS for ‘blacklisting a company’

At this, they misbehaved with the clerk and the women pharmacists, forced them to leave the section and locked it, the official said and added that the female pharmacists spent many hours at the CEO’s office, fearing that they would be attacked by the YDA men, present outside the office, if they went out.

The official declared Thursday’s incident an outcome of weakness of the Mayo Hospital’s management that had provided an opportunity to the YDA men to carry out an attack on the purchase section. He said the same group had forced their entry into the office of Additional Medical Superintendent (AMS) Purchase Dr Samra Zahra a day earlier on Wednesday and misbehaved with her over some management issues.

“I was discharging my daily duties in my office when suddenly the men of the YDA Mayo Hospital, including its president, made forced entry,” Dr Samra told Dawn while giving details of the alleged incident the other day.

She said the behaviour of the intruders was so aggressive and intolerable that she rushed to the adjoining office of the MS to avoid any physical assault. She added that as she entered the office of the MS to seek shelter, the YDA men chased her and started hurling serious threats to her in the presence of the MS. They threatened the MS that they would lock the offices of MS and AMS if she was not transferred immediately from her post. It was so sudden that the MS rushed to the office of the CEO to brief him about the YDA’s unwarranted act.

Dr Samra said she was holding the additional charge of the AMS admin too and hospital top management held a meeting and withdrew from her the additional charge of the admin slot to avoid further confrontation with the YDA men.

“I am undergoing mental stress due to the frequent attacks by the YDA men and seriously considering filing a petition with the Punjab ombudsperson against the male offenders for harassing me on my job,” Dr Samra said.

The official source said this step of removing Dr Samra from her post had encouraged the YDA men who carried out a second attack on the purchase department on Thursday where she was working as regular AMS procurement in order to further target her.

About the reasons, which led to the incident, the official said the AMS purchase had blacklisted a company for allegedly violating the terms of the agreement with the hospital and that might be the one of the major factors behind the unrest.

Dawn tried to contact the YDA as well as the CEO of the Mayo Hospital for their version but in vain.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2024