Senators` plea turned down

ISLAMABAD, March 29: Senators on Tuesday asked the young doctors working in the capital`s public hospitals to call off their strike, assuring them that the government would look into their demands, but they refused. The young doctors` condition for ending the strike was to get the `assurances` in writing, which they did not get. The top officials of the federal health ministry also held their first discussion with the members of the Young Doctors Association (YDA), telling them that their demands would be `considered`. For the second day running, Senators Kulsoom Parveen, Rehana Yahya Baloch and Zahid Khan met with the YDA members and asked them to end their strike. On Tuesday, the backlog of routine surgical procedures reached 250 in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), Polyclinic and the National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine (NIRM). On condition of anonymity, a doctor said patients are usually given extended dates spanning over months for `elective surgical procedures`. A young doctor said they are also worried over cancellation of routine surgical procedures. "But our demands are genuine. We will not bow down and OPDs and elective surgical procedures will remain suspended," he said. For the last three days, Syeda Hamida Ahmed had been visiting the Pims for getting report of stomach tests. "I am only told that all work is closed because of strike." Finally, she decided to get the tests done from a private laboratory. The patients were stranded on Tuesday because of OPDs closure in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences and Polyclinic. There was almost no work at all the departments of Pims, Polyclinic and National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine as the paramedic and lab staff was missing on the second day of the strike.