Young doctors also announced a halt to work in the emergency services if their demands were not met within 48 hours
The Young Doctors Association in Balochistan has called on young doctors from all over Balochistan to reach Quetta after the arrest of doctors and has also announced to suspend work on emergency services in all government hospitals if their demands are not met within 48 hours.
Young doctors say that after two o'clock on Saturday night, the police arrested the young doctors and paramedics sitting on the sit-in and transferred them to two police stations and transferred them to District Jail Quetta on Sunday afternoon.
Dr Arsalan, a member of the Supreme Council of the Young Doctors Association of Balochistan, claimed that 19 members of the medical staff, including 16 doctors, had been arrested while raids were being carried out to arrest the remaining officials.
Patients and their caregivers are deeply disturbed by the dispute between the young doctors and the government
Civil Hospital is the second largest government hospital in Quetta. Being in the center of the city, a large number of people come here for treatment not only from Quetta but also from remote areas of Balochistan.
Although the doctors' strike has been causing almost daily distress to the people in recent days, the OPD was locked on Monday morning when they came to the hospital in severe cold.
Police arrived after 11 a.m. and broke the lock on the OPD, but patients declared it useless without doctors.
Mujeebullah Kakar, a relative of a patient from Ziarat district, told media that he has been coming here for five days but there are no doctors.
He said that the police had just come in the afternoon and broke the lock but the real problem is not to break the lock but the doctors do not come and sit here.
Mujeebullah Kakar said the government should ensure the presence of doctors so that poor patients and their relatives who come from far away do not face any problem.
A woman who was brought from Pishin, 50 km from Quetta city, died at the hospital. Taking the woman's body back, the woman's son Abdul Aziz said that the hospital was aware that people were dying due to lack of treatment.
He said that although the patients were facing difficulties due to the doctors' strike, they were forced to protest because the government was not complying with their "legitimate demands".
However, Balochistan Secondary Health Secretary Noorul Haq Baloch termed the doctors' protest as baseless and said that the doctors had been arrested by the police on charges of blocking the road without any involvement of the health department.
Patients and their caregivers are deeply disturbed by the dispute between the young doctors and the government
Civil Hospital is the second largest government hospital in Quetta. Being in the center of the city, a large number of people come here for treatment not only from Quetta but also from remote areas of Balochistan.
Although the doctors' strike has been causing almost daily distress to the people in recent days, the OPD was locked on Monday morning when they came to the hospital in severe cold.
Police arrived after 11 a.m. and broke the lock on the OPD, but patients declared it useless without doctors.
Mujeebullah Kakar, a relative of a patient from Ziarat district, told media that he has been coming here for five days but there are no doctors.
He said that the police had just come in the afternoon and broke the lock but the real problem is not to break the lock but the doctors do not come and sit here.
Mujeebullah Kakar said the government should ensure the presence of doctors so that poor patients and their relatives who come from far away do not face any problem.
A woman who was brought from Pishin, 50 km from Quetta city, died at the hospital. Taking the woman's body back, the woman's son Abdul Aziz said that the hospital was aware that people were dying due to lack of treatment.
Demonstrations by young doctors
On the other hand, against the arrest of doctors and paramedics in Quetta, the Young Doctors Association has started boycotting all services except emergency services in hospitals across Balochistan.
The young doctors have been protesting for the past two months, but they have been holding sit-ins near the Governor's House since November 23 despite the severe cold.
What was the reason for the arrest of doctors and paramedics by the police?
The young doctors had rallied from Civil Hospital Quetta on November 23 in support of their demands and wanted to protest in front of the Chief Minister's House.
Police did not allow him to enter the Chief Minister's House whereupon they staged a sit-in at T&T Chowk near the Governor's House.
The FIR filed by SHO Civil Lines not only termed the protest as a violation of the duty of doctors but also said that the sit-in on the road caused traffic to children, employees and the general public. Due to the jam, transportation was severely hampered.
Why did the young doctors start the recent protest?
Protests by young doctors and paramedics in Balochistan have now become commonplace, with the recent protests starting two months ago.
The list of demands submitted to the government by the Young Doctors Association consists of 24 points.
According to Dr Arsalan, a member of the Supreme Council of the Young Doctors Association of Balochistan, "all but two of the 24 demands are for the benefit of patients."
He claimed that government hospitals in Balochistan were in ruins due to inattention of the government and lacked medical facilities.
He said that when patients come to the hospital, they vent their anger on the doctors and hospital staff for lack of medicines and other facilities.
"Ensuring medicine and modern missionary care in hospitals is not the job of doctors and other medical staff but the job of the government. But since hospitals have doctors or other medical staff in front of patients and their families, There is anger and rage.
He said that one of the demands for personal benefit of young doctors is to increase their salaries and allow post graduate students to go on deputation to study in other good institutions of the country.
Dr. Arsalan said that his salary was fixed at Rs. 80,000 in 2016 but no increase was made thereafter.
"Young doctors do not practice privately. That's why we want to increase our salaries in line with inflation. "
He blamed the secretaries of primary and secondary health departments for the problems in the hospitals and said that they were moving the government hospitals towards privatization.
Dr Arsalan said that the pediatric ward at Civil Hospital Quetta was being shifted to Children's Hospital Quetta where it was not possible for poor people to get treatment for their children.
The test for children in Civil Hospital which costs Rs. 20 will cost Rs. 500 in Children's Hospital. How can a poor man bear it? '
He said that talks were held with his provincial health minister Syed Ehsan Shah in a cordial atmosphere on which he put aside his demands for sit-in so as not to cause any inconvenience to the patients. Doctors and paramedics were arrested in the operation.
Dr Arsalan said a total of 19 people were arrested in the dark of night, including 16 young doctors.
He blamed the two secretaries of the health department for the deteriorating situation and said that despite the talks and peaceful protests, the arrests showed that the two secretaries were not sincere in resolving the issue.
Dr Arsalan demanded that the two be suspended immediately and that the young doctors would not talk to the government and would continue their protest until they were suspended.
The position of health department officials
Balochistan Secondary Health Secretary Noorul Haq Baloch termed the doctors' protest as unwarranted and said that not all young doctors were involved in the protest.
He said that these doctors were arrested by the police on the charge of blocking the road without any involvement of the health department.
He alleged that in the name of lack of facilities in hospitals, these people want to make two demands, one of which is to make them permanent without examination of Public Service Commission and the other is to give them duty at Sheikh Zayed Hospital on the outskirts of the city. Not to be sent
Noor-ul-Haq Baloch said that young doctors could not be made permanent without passing the examination of Public Service Commission.
Doing so would be a challenge for the government itself as appointments to posts above grade 16 must pass the Public Service Commission examination. If doctors were made permanent without passing the Public Service Commission exam, then people from other fields will make similar demands tomorrow.
He rejected the allegation of privatization of hospitals, saying that the Children's Hospital was earlier run by a company but now it has been brought under the purview of the government through legislation.
"We have to ask these young doctors to perform their duties at least in the facilities available in the hospitals but they are not ready to do their duty."