Young doctors protest peacefully — for now

Jinnah and Children’s hospital walk-in clinics boycotted for a ‘short time’.

KARACHI:

Shahida Hamid, 44, a patient with a liver condition, waited at the Jinnah hospital out-patients department for a long time till she finally got through to a doctor — who was unable to conduct her check-up properly. She ended up with a list of blood tests which she had already undergone.

The corridors of the hospital rang empty on Tuesday morning and there was nobody who could hand her the reports she needed to show the doctor. “I can’t keep getting my blood tests like this!” she said, exasperated.

To Shahida’s misfortune, her visit to the hospital coincided with the day, and time, the Young Doctors Association (YDA) kicked off their protest in support of their counterparts in the Punjab.

“We do not want to go on strike, we just want the government to consider our demands,” said Dr Mehnaz Jabeen, a postgraduate doctor at Jinnah hospital. “If this is done, we will continue our work peacefully.”

Young doctors are demanding a uniform salary scale across Pakistan because “doctors doing the same work and practically the same hours should be compensated the same way”. The disparity between federal, provincial and interprovincial salaries needs to be eliminated, they demanded.

While the protest official began on Tuesday, it started creating a stir at the federally managed Jinnah hospital and the National Institute of Child Health, a day earlier, when young doctors at the children’s hospital boycotted walk-in clinics for a while.

By Tuesday morning, however, the association and the Jinnah hospital administration seemed to have reached an understanding. A few dozen doctors, some wearing black armbands, protested outside the Najmuddin Auditorium and most out-patients department stayed closed for over an hour.

Speaking on behalf of the hospital, joint executive director at JPMC, Dr Seemin Jamali, said that the out-patients departments were shut for a short time near closing time (about noon). “Since this would not affect patient care, the hospital had given the doctors permission to register a ‘peaceful protest’,” she said. According to Jamali, JPMC has 360 postgraduate doctors, 800 house officers appointed by the federal government and 200 house officers deputed by the Sindh government. Only a few of them were participating in the protest.

To make up for the lost time, the president for the YDA in Sindh, Dr Abbas Ali Shah, said that the out-patients department would stay open till 3pm on Tuesday. However, when The Express Tribune checked up on the claim, some of the OPDs were already locked up before the clock struck 1 pm.

Other demands put forth by the young doctors include improved security and safety on hospital premises and better benefits. “We are doctors, not beggars,” said Dr Rekha Melwani, another postgraduate participating in the protest. “We have hectic duty hours that we execute but in return we do not even get any respect, let alone financial compensation.” Melwani argued that patients and their relatives manhandle doctors when they are not given the news they want to hear and such violence needs to be stopped.

“We study for five years after which we are compelled under the Pakistan Medical and Dental Association rules to do a house job before we can get our degree,” Jabeen explained. The house job is done at a standard compensation of Rs18,000 for federal officers, however, some are not as lucky and end up performing the house job for free.

“Keeping inflation in mind, the money we make is simply not enough. We pay Rs10,000 each time we appear for our postgraduate level exams. Then, there are other workshops we need to attend. After this, a lucky few are recruited by private practices while the rest end up as general practitioners.”

Meanwhile, the YDA’s Shah has announced a four-day ultimatum to the authorities to “seriously consider” their demands or “we will be forced to take steps that we prefer to avoid”.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th,  2011.