ISLAMABAD: Taking notice of frequent strikes by doctors, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) sent letters to management of hospitals, medical colleges and district health officers instructing them to ensure that doctors standby their oath to save humanity.

However, the Young Doctors Association (YDA) claimed that everyone has the right to protest for genuine demands and termed the letter a blackmailing attempt by the PMDC and challenged the legal status of the council.

The PMDC, the press release said, has sent letters to all hospitals and institutions, both public and private, to ensure that doctors care for patients, whether critical or not and avoid participating in protests.

“Doctors should not create hurdles for colleagues who intend to carry out their duty of saving patients,” the press release said.

The PMDC oversees the registration of doctors and dentists, through legislation and has formed a code of ethics to ensure that doctors perform their duties.

A PMDC official, who is not authorised to speak on record, said doctors routinely go on strike in response to any incident at a hospital and pressurise authorities into accepting their demands.

“Doctors force the outpatient departments (OPD) to close and then start threatening to shut down emergency departments if their demands are not met. Doctors have shut down the OPD at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) numerous times even after a minor argument or scuffle with the relatives of a patient,” he said.

Doctors reminded of their oath to save humanity

“In the month of March and April YDA held protests in Lahore and closed as many as four main roads of the city. People suffer during strikes but doctors are not bothered so hospital managements have been instructed to take disciplinary action against doctors who go on strike,” the official said.

In an official statement released on Tuesday, the PMDC stated that as a regulator, it has observed that young doctors go on protest and shut down OPDs and hospital emergencies with no concern for the health of patients.

PMDC Registrar Dr Shaista Faisal said that doctors are bound to follow the code of ethics. PMDC has been empowered to initiate disciplinary action under section 31 of the Act and can cancel the registration of a doctor, if they violate their code of ethics.

“The PMDC also requests patients to inform the council if doctors are protesting for right so immediate action can be taken against the doctors as well as the hospital management,” she said.

YDA spokesperson Dr Amir Bandesha told Dawn that such strategies by the PMDC are seen by him as attempts to blackmail doctors.

“The YDA has challenged the legality of the PMDC’s status in the Lahore High Court and contacted the Ministry of National Health Services and parliamentary committees. So the PMDC has been adopting different strategies to pressurise the YDA,” he said.

“We have also demanded that merit should be followed in private colleges and they should receive Rs 660,000 in fees per year. Private colleges give admission to students with only 60 per cent marks, after receiving a donation of Rs3 million, which is unfair to those who cannot afford to pay,” he said.

In response to a question, Dr Bandesha said the YDA held protests in Lahore but only doctors who were off duty, participated.

“We also try to avoid strikes but we have been struggling for a service structure which was admitted by the Punjab government in November 2012 but could not be implemented. The government has created 10,000 posts for the doctors, for which doctors who have been working on contracts should be considered,” he said.

“If our issues are not resolved, we will have no option but to go on strike, maybe even next month,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2015

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