Overworked doctors: IHC issues notices to health regulators

Islamabad High Court seeks detailed responses on petition by November 2

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday issued notices to health regulators in the country on a petition filed by a doctor against lengthy working hours – 102 hours per week – for resident health professionals across the country.

Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb issued notices to the Health Ministry, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) with directions to submit their report and para-wise comments by November 2.

The doctor, Dr Nafeesa Hiba, had urged the IHC to intervene over how doctors were made to work long hours, stating that it not only jeopardises the well-being of healthcare professionals but also of the patients who visit hospitals.

In the petition, Dr Hiba states that resident doctors were working for over 102 hours a week, which not only causes trauma and stress to the medical professionals but can also make them vulnerable to diseases such as insomnia.

Submitting through her counsel Saimul Haq Satti, the petitioner argued that doctors were not even getting time or place for proper sleep, and are unable to join family get together or socialize which is a violation of fundamental human rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

She made the federation through the Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHSRC), NHSRC secretary, chief secretaries of the Punjab, Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) president, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) and Advocate General of Islamabad as respondents.



The counsel said that the doctors are forced to perform their duties for extended hours per week without holidays as post-graduate trainees, house officers and medical officers in tertiary care hospitals.

Satti said that the petitioner’s community is forced to perform their duties in highly unhygienic conditions without where even the provision of basic amenities such as good food and sanitised potable water to drink.

He added that this seriously affects the life of petitioner’s community enormously who ultimately, as last resort, opt to say goodbye to their motherland and wish to serve in the other jurisdictions of the world.

While calling it “worst form of slavery”, the petitioner maintained that her community is forced to perform their duties “illegally, unlawfully and in violation of all canon of justice and fair play” with no incentives and additional pay.

Dr Hiba demanded a reduction in the working hours on the basis of studies revealing that doctors who work more than 24 hours are 73 per cent more prone to needle-stick injuries, perform at the seventh percentile of rested performance and are 2.3 times more likely to have car accidents.

She added that going over 24 hours without sleep slows reaction time similar to alcohol intoxication. Interns working traditional call schedules are 36 per cent more likely to make serious medical errors and six times more likely to make diagnostic errors than those working 16 hours shifts.

Satti stated in the petition that the current unregulated work schedules in Pakistan not only endanger the safety of healthcare professionals but also of the patients they care for.

The counsel said that the petitioner seeks streamlining the duty hours for doctors and healthcare professionals ensuring the holidays on rotation basis wherein the doctors should ordinarily work for 48-hours per week spread over six days.

“In Pakistan, the medical professionals are held in contemporary forms of slavery which is haram and unlawful,” he stated. He added that regulation of working time is one of the oldest concerns of labour legislation or professionals.

He said that petitioner’s community was becoming unable day by day to follow their oath in true letter and spirit due to the injustice meted out to them by the respondents. In addition, he said many lady doctors quit medical profession.

Satti said that the long working hours of petitioner’s community is not only inhuman but also against the dictum laid down regarding the dignity of the workman.

He has prayed that the governments, medical institutions and universities under command, control or management of the respondents be directed to amend their unlawful rules and regulations and working schedules of doctors.

He has also prayed that the government hospitals be directed to make available the basic needs of the medical professionals as the doctors were forced to serve in unhygienic conditions without any facility to proper foods and sanitised water.

Several questions of laws have also been raised in the petition for discrete decision.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2017.