For the last three weeks or so, Punjab had witnessed the ever worst healthcare crisis in public sector hospitals. Who should be held responsible for taking the healthcare system to such a low? The doctors had their own unflinching demands. But the Punjab government, too, looked adamant to teach the YDA a lesson – ostensibly an effort to stave off similar demands from other government employees.
It was not manifest as to whom the doctors were at war with – was it the Punjab government, the bureaucracy or the patients? The doctors even became averse to the media for not portraying the true picture. They were also ill-disposed towards the high court after it took up their case and ordered young doctors to resume working in the emergencies. So, the young doctors had unwisely opened many fronts instead of focusing their attention on the objective that can potentially lead them to have their due demands.
The YDA was formed in 2008 when a handful of young doctors protested the suspension orders of some lady doctors of Mayo Hospital and succeeded in having their colleagues reinstated. This, in fact, emboldened the young doctors. Since then, the YDA has gone on many strikes so as to force the Punjab government to meet their demands. The Punjab government has also been yielding to the demands. The salary of a doctor in BPS-17 has been enhanced to Rs. 44000 and in BPS-18 to Rs. 54000. But this time, the Punjab government posed stiff resistance to the YDA’s demand-package.
YDA’s minimum demands were the induction of medical officers in BPS-18 instead of BPS-17, enhancement of the stipends for postgraduate residents and increase in doctors’ health professional allowance. There was also the demand of the provision of official residence and cars in BPS-20 and BPS-21 which was valid and ought to be fulfilled. The demand of a clear service structure having rules for transfers and time-scale promotions to next scales was also by no means unreasonable.
But the recent demand-package had some unreasonable demands too. There were objections raised by the health bureaucracy. The bureaucracy said that the demand of universal one scale up-gradation would be very hard to implement. It says that after one-scale upgrading, the health department would have 2,600 posts in BPS-20 and 600 posts in BPS-21, posing a serious threat to the existing health hierarchy in the province where, at present, there are around 600 posts in BPS-20 and 7 posts in BPS-21 for doctors.
Given the problems that this strike created, both the government and YDA should look at their behaviour introspectively. The government should put in a proper mechanism for conflict resolution so that the doctors have a proper channel through which to negotiate. The YDA should also look at its protest methods and realistically assess whether their demands hold water. They must change their tack as Punjab and its people can ill-afford a similar health crisis.
MUHAMMAD TAHIR IQBAL
Lahore
