In Quetta, doctors are stuck between a rock and a hard place

Patients suffer as doctors protest abduction of colleagues, insecure working environment.

QUETTA:

On a bed in Civil Hospital Quetta, 12-year-old Jan Mohammad has been waiting for good news for the last 10 days – news that there will be a doctor available to operate on his fractured leg.

Mohammad, who works at a laundry, fractured his polio-affected leg at work. He has travelled from Spin Boldak, an area bordering Afghanistan, for an operation but the doctors are on strike and no one is attending to him.

The injury has paralysed his body, while the strike has paralysed his hopes.

He is, however, one of thousands of patients, waiting for their healers to return from a strike that began some 12 days ago.

Why are the doctors striking?

The strike, called by the Pakistan Medical Association’s (PMA) Balochistan chapter, began as a result of the abduction, on October 6, of Dr Saeed Khan, an eye specialist at the LRBT hospital.

The doctors are protesting against the poor security situation, of which Dr Khan’s abduction is only one example. All OPDs in Quetta’s main hospitals have been closed as a result.

“At least 12 doctors have been killed in the last four years in targeted killings, including PMA President Mazar Khan, while another 13 doctors have been kidnapped,” Dr Aftab, spokesperson for the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), told The Express Tribune.

Most of the doctors were released after payment of huge ransoms, he said.

“The government of Balochistan did not play any role in the recovery of the doctors nor did it arrest any kidnapper,” he added.

Complaints are pouring in from all corners of the province.

Dr Arif Khan, medical officer at Civil Hospital Kuchlak (a small town approximately 25 kilometres away from Quetta), said: “We are not safe here in Balochistan. We talked to the medical superintendent of Civil Hospital Quetta many times for security but all in vain. The doctors are scared to travel for work because the culprits know our timings. We can’t leave our jobs but we feel unsafe working in government hospitals.”

Who is behind this mayhem?

The perpetrators of these crimes, however, are not entirely unknown.

“We pointed out some kidnappers who abducted Dr Abdullah Barech and Dr Ghulam Rasool but no action was taken against them,” the PMA spokesperson said.

“We [have been] holding meetings with the government of Balochistan for many days to discuss this. The doctors’ decision to resign is pending because they are waiting to see what the outcome of these meetings will be,” said Dr Aftab.

“Our only demand is that security be provided in all state-run hospitals in Balochistan,” he added.

Externalities of the strike

As doctors stick to their stance, people like polio-stricken Jan Mohammad continue to suffer.

Among them is labourer Mohammad Arif from Kalat who was injured in a motorcycle accident and admitted at the Civil Hospital ten days ago. Arif’s right leg had to be amputated, and he was operated upon four times before the strike, and is waiting for his final operation.

The absence of doctors is also causing secondary problems for patients, including the procurement of free medication.

“I am a labourer and cannot afford the cost of medicine, which is Rs3,000 per day,” Arif said.

Arif’s brother, Shaista Khan, added: “The doctors told us that [we] should go [to] a private hospital for treatment as they are on strike. A large number of patients in the Orthopaedic ward have already left because of the unavailability of doctors. They can afford the private hospital, but we are poor. We cannot.”

How many affected?

The number of people affected by this strike can be gauged by the average number of patients that normally frequent the out-patient departments (OPDs): 2,000 at Civil Hospital, 3,000 at the Bolan Medical Complex Hospital and 600 patients at the Helper Eye hospital. The LRBT Eye Hospital Quetta has been shut down entirely due to absence of doctors.

Meanwhile, on an average, some 15 to 20 surgeries are performed at Civil Hospital Quetta, many of them lifesaving. None have been performed since the strike began.

Earlier on October 23, Balochistan High Court Chief Justice Qazi Faez Esa took suo motu action and expressed his concern over the mounting incidents of kidnapping for ransom in the province. The next hearing is scheduled for November 6, and the court has ordered the government and police to present the details of kidnapping for ransom cases by then.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31^st, 2012.