PESHAWAR: Five doctors were injured and an unspecified number arrested during a protest on Friday at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) one of Peshawar’s biggest public sector hospitals.
Doctors and paramedics were protesting at Lady Reading Hospital against the establishment of district and regional health authorities giving financial and administrative autonomy to hospitals at district level. The doctors oppose the move and have called it the “privatisation of public health facilities”.
A bill is also supposed to be presented in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly today (Friday) on the authorities’ establishment.
During the protest at Lady Reading Hospital, the police were deployed to stop the protesters. They began beating them with batons and shelling. Several doctors were injured.
The protest had been going on since the morning.
The OPDs are closed at the Khyber Teaching Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex as well.
