LAHORE – 52-year-old Irshad Bibi is diabetic and had her right foot amputated two months ago at Mayo Hospital. She has to visit the hospital regularly after every 15 days for a check up and dressing. From a lower income household of a remote village of Mandibahauddin, her son, a government employee, finds it difficult to manage her travel expenditure. The cost is steep but the family pools to manage it because doctors said that if the wound was not properly taken care of another amputation above the knee might be needed. She has come twice to Lahore and missed her regular appointments due to the ongoing strike of young doctors, who shut the medical facilities at all major hospitals in the city. On Saturday, again, her son took her for a routine dressing at Mayo Hospital, not knowing that the strike still continues and the outdoor patient departments (OPDs) are still shut.
The wound is critical: “We have already missed two appointments due to the strike, but now the wound is approaching critical and we had no option but to seek medical attention. We kept running from pillar to post to seek medical help from any doctor, from any section and ward but all efforts went in vain,” Irshad Bibi’s son, Shahzad, opened his heart to Pakistan Today. “Doctors warned us at the time of the operation that the foot amputation was just to minimize the damage. They said if the wound were not taken proper care of it could result in an amputation above knee. The same doctors are now not available to check my mother,” Shahzad said, “we even visited their wards and begged to the doctors to check up the patient but they did not pay heed to our pleas, saying that doctors were on strike.”
Half of my month’s salary: “My mother cannot travel on public transport because of her condition. Hiring a taxi and other expenses cost almost Rs 6,000 per visit, which is almost half of my monthly salary. I will bear the expenses on my mother’s treatment, but the exercise of running from one ward to another for a check up of a patient in a critical condition is torturous,” he said, “I have nothing to do with any strike, I only want my mother to be treated.” YDA member Dr Salman Kazmi said that post operative cases are also checked up in the OPD, while the patients are admitted through either the OPD or the emergency department. “Doctors in in-door departments are looking after patients previously admitted in wards, while in some hospitals ward doctors are not checking patients,” he added.
Punjab Health Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad however said all health facilities in hospitals will resume in a couple of days and the issue will be resolved. He said in-door patients departments have been working across major hospitals and the “loopholes” have been observed and covered in “just a few days,” as the government has both revoked the termination notices issued to doctors and agreed to raise their salaries by July. It has been two weeks since young doctors shut down health facilities. The likelihood is that they shall get a special salary package as per government promise, but Irshad Bibi and thousands likes of her might not get their lost body parts back, while others might not live to witness their success.
