Doctors’ strike deaths: Chief secretary gets 15 days to fix responsibility

Terminated doctors should be banned from entering public hospitals, says petitioner.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Friday gave 15 days to the Punjab chief secretary to submit a report fixing responsibility for the deaths during the young doctors’ strike at public teaching hospitals.

Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry had earlier criticised the health secretary, Fawad Hasan Fawad, for not handling the matter well. Justice Chaudhry said if the health secretary was unable to run the affairs of his office, he should quit.

“The chief minister is otherwise known for suspending officials for less substantive problems. How come he never took notice of the health secretary’s failure?” he asked.

The chief justice said that he had not taken suo mottu notice of the issue because the matter was already pending in the Supreme Court.

Chief Secretary Nasir Mahmood Khosa said the health secretary had not been dealing with the issue alone. He said a special committee had been formed to look into the matter and propose a way out.

Khosa said that the government had stated from day one that it was ready to meet the demands of young doctors but it needed some time. He said Rs26 billion was needed to give doctors the demanded pay raise.

Young Doctors Association president Hamid Butt said they had been given similar assurances for over a year-and-a-half. He said the government had forced them into going on a strike by failing to fulfill its promises.

Butt said that the boycott of work never extended to the emergency wards. He said they never let the patients suffer because of their strike and even set up medical camps on roadsides.

He said the government was responsible for the doctors taking up jobs in Saudi Arabia. “It should have realised that the brain drain could only be stopped by offering doctors a decent salary at home,” he said.

He said the young doctors did not have private practices and depended entirely on their government salaries.

Counsel for petitioner, Manzoor Qadir, submitted that officials of the young doctors’ association (YDA) had been harassing the doctors who were willing to perform their duties at hospitals. He said they were reported to have used foul language with some women doctors. He alleged that so far 200 patients had died due to the doctors’ strike.

He said the government too bore responsibility for the deaths as it had given a free hand to the protesting doctors. About the doctors terminated from services, he said their entry in hospitals should be banned unlike the ones terminated in 2009 who were restored to the jobs after they tendered apologies.

The chief justice remarked that the government was aware that the poor could not afford treatment at private hospitals and yet it had let the issue linger for so long. He said those found responsible in the inquiry should get severe punishments. He said he would be in a position to order registration of cases against the culprits once the inquiry was completed.

Manzoor Qadir had submitted in his petition that protesting doctors had violated the code of professional conduct by going on strike.

He had said the strike had denied the citizens their fundamental right to medical treatment guaranteed in the constitution.

The petitioner had prayed that the court issue directives for the government to take action against the protesting doctors and for the doctors to call off the strike.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2011.