Young Doctors Association called off its strike for a three-fold pay increase on Thursday after the Punjab government announced the setting up of a six-member committee which is to submit its recommendations to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif within two weeks.
The result is unlikely to be any different from what the government had suggested several days ago, when it offered to double the salaries over the next three years. YDA refused to take the offer, asking for immediate implementation. But there was no money to be had. Chief Secretary Nasir Khosa told the Lahore High Court, hearing a petition challenging the legality of the strike on Thursday, that the government was willing to accept the demand but not immediately since that would cost it Rs 26 billion annually.
There were other reasons, too, behind the government reluctance. The service structure and emoluments of doctors in Punjab have already been improved. They are better paid than their counterparts in the other provinces. Besides, the economic discontent is not restricted to medical professionals. Teachers and clerks too agitate from time to time for decent salaries.
The medical profession is unlike any other. Which is why the Hippocratic Oath, that doctors take at graduation includes, among other things, a vow to apply all necessary measures for the benefit of the sick, and to "remember" that a doctor is a member of society "with special obligations to all my fellow human beings." Sad as it is, the YDA members forgot their special obligations to demand special rights, ignoring the suffering they caused to the sick for nearly 37 days.
Unfortunately, however, political parties, especially the PPP and the PML-Q, too saw the strike as an opportunity to play politics, issuing declarations of sympathy for the strikers and criticising the government for taking a tough stand. The government may be accused of reacting poorly, particularly for waiting until last week to declare hospitals an essential service. Taking that measure soon after the strike began could have helped achieve a quicker resolution.
But there was no justification whatsoever for the Young Doctors to lock the doors of OPD and wards on patients, preventing those among them who wanted to work, from doing their duty. An estimated 40,000 per day patients were denied medical attention. The number of those who lost their lives due to unavailability of timely treatment is said to be nearly 500. This is unacceptable.
Taking cognizance of the public suffering, the court has held both sides responsible for it, observing that the Punjab government completely failed to handle the issue, and the doctors for playing with lives. It has ordered to set up a commission of inquiry into the strike and the deaths it caused. The issue needs to be pursued in all seriousness, so as to pin the responsibility and prevent any recurrence of the ugly episode.
Input should also be sought from the relevant medical bodies, such as the PMDC and the University of Health Sciences, to ensure doctors always remember that they have special obligations to their fellow human beings. Meanwhile, governments in Sindh and Balochistan, where doctors have mounted similar agitations, should learn from the experience of Punjab and take timely steps to prevent public suffering.