The Young Doctors’ Association (YDA) on Wednesday boycotted Out-Patient Department (OPD) services across the country, Daily Times reported.
They are protesting against torture of their colleagues in Islamabad during a protest outside Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC).
According to the YDA spokesperson, only emergency services are being provided at the hospital. The move comes a day after police manhandled their fellow doctors in the federal capital during a protest against National Licensing Examination (NLE).
They criticised the government and the doctors said that this is the first time in the country’s history that the police brutally attacked doctors.
The protests are causing severe difficulties to the patients coming to the hospitals.
Services Hospital Lahore have suspended their services.
In Faisalabad, the doctors from the YDA platform have suspended OPDs and also the operation theatre services at the Allied Hospital. They also staged a protest and strongly condemned the torture and arrest of their colleagues in Islamabad. They vowed not to accept NLE law at any cost.
Hundreds of young doctors across the country have been protesting against the PMC. The doctors have demanded that the compulsion to sit the National Licensing Exam should be withdrawn.
The Pakistan Medical Commission has announced that in order to practice in Pakistan, doctors will have to take a licensing exam after completing five years of education.
Young doctors say the additional examination was unfair as they had already passed the same exam to obtain their MBBS degrees.
On Tuesday, at least 20 doctors were arrested after they tried to enter the PMC building. The Islamabad police baton-charged the protesters.
