QUETTA: The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Balochistan chapter, has said that some groups, including political parties, are projecting false propaganda against the healthcare community.

A spokesman for the PMA Balochistan said on Sunday that since the outbreak of coronavirus in Pakistan the doctors and paramedical staff were working on the front line against the pandemic, but some political parties had been making a baseless claim that members of the medical staff were not present in government hospitals.

He said thousands of patients had been coming to the state-run hospitals and a number of doctors and paramedical staff had sacrificed their lives in the line of duty.

He said the provincial health department had been providing medical equipment, safety kits and other facilities to the doctors in government hospitals.

“Patients should not be discouraged,” the spokesman said, adding that the doctors and paramedics in all government hospitals in the province, including Quetta, were treating patients without caring for their own lives and the statements of some political parties that there were no doctors and paramedical staff in the hospitals were baseless.

He said the PMA wanted to make it clear that the doctors and other staff were working day and night to provide medical treatment to the people in government hospitals.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2020