Doctors demand protection, legal reforms

KARACHI:

The Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) organised a seminar titled, "Who Will Heal the Healers?", at PIMA House to protest the acid attack on Dr Mah Noor and the increasing incidents of harassment and intimidation faced by doctors and healthcare workers in hospitals.

Addressing the seminar, PIMA Central President Dr Atif Hafeez Siddiqui said that the healthcare sector had increasingly come under the influence of capitalists and industrialists, while the elite did not want ordinary citizens to have access to quality healthcare. He stressed the need for legislation against the harassment of doctors and healthcare workers in hospitals and called for adequate protection so that they can treat patients without fear.

Dr Atif further stated that violence against doctors, harassment of medical staff, and damage to hospital property should be declared punishable offences.

He clarified that a doctor's responsibility is to diagnose patients and prescribe treatment, while the provision of hospital beds, medicines, and other facilities is the government's responsibility, not that of the attending physician.

He also called for an end to workplace harassment of doctors and the misuse of authority against them. He demanded a ban on photographing or recording doctors on duty inside hospitals without proper authorisation from hospital management and medical staff. He further proposed that no FIR should be registered against a doctor without prior proceedings by the relevant health commission.

PIMA Women Wing President Dr Zakia Aurangzeb highlighted the extremely low salaries of trainee doctors.