Pakistani Doctor's Strike: Hit Home

[indushek]

I am really sorry to hear about your loss Mastan sir.

 

[VCheng]

Vcheng,

.......................

Doctors are like millitary----it is like saying that the millitary won't go to war when he enemy comes knocking---milltary is on strike because of reasons so and so.

The govt has spent millions to teach these men and women----for specialized education---the doctors don't have any civil rights to go on strike.

Start hanging their leaders one by one---10 in the first hour and one after every 10 minutes----and then see who goes on strike.

.........................

You men and women want to take back your country and bring sanity to it----that is the only way left.

Well Sir, as much as I can understand your point of view, why don't you read a firsthand account from a young doctor yourself and comment:

==========================


from: This Pakistan doesn

This Pakistan doesn’t deserve me


Maj (r) Usman Tahir
Friday, July 13, 2012 From Print Edition


My name is Dr Khan, I am 26 and a government officer of BPS 17 working in Lahore in the largest hospital of Asia. I stood second in the medical college entrance test, out of 40,000 people. I studied in King Edward Medical College, Lahore’s best. I graduated in 2010.

I have 16 gold medals in 12 subjects. The day I graduated, my father, a respectable medical consultant who also graduated from King Edward’s, as did his own father, advised me to “leave this country” because doctors have no future here. I knew he was right, but like almost all of my friends, I decided to stay; for one thing, I didn’t want to leave my parents.

I enrolled in a postgraduate training programme of surgery and started working. I worked 12 months, my duty hours were 110 hours per week and increased to 150 hours every third week (and there are a total of 168 hours in one week). Some weeks I barely even saw my mother, of whom I am very fond, but no matter.

Until last year I was paid Rs22,340 per month. That is exactly Rs50 for every hour of duty, but that was all right, because my dad is rich and I don’t want for anything. My pocket money is four times my pay, but taking money from your father is humiliating, especially after all the work I put in: I couldn’t even have afforded car fuel for all those trips to the hospital but for my father’s generosity.

Everyone doesn’t have a medical consultant for a father, so last year we called a strike for better pay. Some doctors worked two jobs.

But after the government’s reaction last year (I was fired, together with 4,400 other doctors) I had a change of heart. Frankly, this is what I thought: To hell with Pakistan and its people. I was bitter and I was wrong. In the end, the pay was increased by Rs15,000. As of last month my pay, after taxes, is Rs41,240: that’s around Rs100 per hour.

We still have no defined duty hours, however. And would you believe it that more than 50 percent of the doctors work for free? (That is called an honorary job.) We have no promotion system: out of a total of 34,000 doctors in Punjab only 200 can hope to get Grade 17 to 20. Most never even receive a promotion.

This year we had a strike again. We wore black armbands and demonstrated peacefully. Four meetings were held and in all four meetings government representatives made promises they subsequently broke. After the fifth meeting, and fifth breached pledge, we decided to go on strike.

My heart is broken. I applied for training in America, and because of my academic records and the fact that I had passed three international exams with 99 percentile, I got my H1b work visa from the American Embassy within three days.

Two weeks ago I was offered a job at the Kingsbrook Medical Centre in New York. My initial pay is going to be more than what most industrialists make in a month. My flight is in 17 days, as I write this. I don’t plan to come back.

Out of my class of 310, 159 were girls who got married and did not practice medicine. Only 23 lady doctors are working. Ninety percent of the males have all migrated, I was there at Minar-e-Pakistan with more than 20 friends. Another 18 of us are never coming back. I love Pakistan, but Shahbaz Sharif’s Pakistan doesn’t deserve me.

 

[BelligerentPacifist]

^I'm afraid someone wishing to pursue a medical career should be clear on one thing - that they will never accept money in exchange for their sevices.

This will make them never go on strike again for reasons of employment/benefits.

 

[VCheng]

^I'm afraid someone wishing to pursue a medical career should be clear on one thing - that they will never accept money in exchange for their sevices.

This will make them never go on strike again for reasons of employment/benefits.

................. or far more likely, it will make them leave for abroad - permanently.

 

[Pakistanisage]

I support establishment of many Medical School to break the monoply of the doctors.

 

[harpoon]

@VCheng: This whining Dr. Khan doesn't mention a single word about the millions of rupees that the ordinary tax payer of Pakistan spends in educating people like him. He may be very happy to get a job in US treating Americans, but that Americans doesn't paid a single rupee/dollar for his education.He may be happy to get his H1B visa in 3 days, but that visa came at the backs of qualifications he earned with the help of the state. If he is in that love with Pakistan, he could have joined a private hospital or started his own clinic, but rather he wants to run away to US. In all I think, Pakistan doesn't deserve people like him.

 

[kill_me]

You cannot call doctors messiahs, and treat them like criminals – raiding their hostels and arresting them. You have to treat them with the dignity and respect that their title deserves before expecting them to behave like messiahs.

somebody should tell Dr Narmeen that it goes other way round first be a messiah then ask for respect .......... these doctors, i dont rally want to call them doctors, dont deserve respect but public hanging

 

[livingdead]

First of all doctors are not God, they are professionals like engineers, architects, pilots etc. We seem to 'respect' them because it is linked directly with our life.
They have right to strike as everybody else, it is govt's job to make a system that is not impacted seriously due to strike.

May be govt should look into promoting private hospitals as well.

 

[harpoon]

First of all doctors are not God, they are professionals like engineers, architects, pilots etc. We seem to 'respect' them because it is linked directly with our life.
They have right to strike as everybody else, it is govt's job to make a system that is not impacted seriously due to strike.

May be govt should look into promoting private hospitals as well.

Yes, doctors are not Gods but their job cannot be compared to others as it involves the life and death of people. So in effect for atleast some people, they are in effect Demi God. The doctors very well know the life they are going to lead. So they have no right to complain now. I hope the Govt comes with a psychological process by which people who are mentally not ready to become doctors are weeded out in the selection process itself and only those who truly care for the well being of the humanity gets selected. If money is the main motivating factor for doctors , they should rather pursue other professions and leave the field for others who care for the well being of the patients rather than than the well being of their pocket.

 

[MastanKhan]

Vcheng,

My father never left the country---he was told many a times to leave the country as doctors had no money---my grand uncle was a doctor---one of the pioneers pakistani doctors in dubai and abu dhabi---a friend of the amir long time ago----. The Amir established a new hospital---my grand uncle asks my father to come over run the place and bring a complete crew with him---it was late 60's---my father refused.

My father was also a graduate of King Edward medical college---why did my father refuse---as a young boy and a young man---I could not understand it for the longest time---. I was mad at him at that time----we could have had more money and a lavish life style---new cars and what ever not---but my father could not do it---I just begun to realize that he could not leave his people.

HE WAS BORN TO SERVE---MEDICAL PROFESSION GAVE HIM THE OPPURTUNITY TO SERVE----. He would at times massage the feet of the patients shocking them and their families---but telling them it makes the patient feel better. He was a saint---I do not know till now what did he do to deserve a sinner rude and obnoxious son like me---I have wondered---.

He would say---if I leave the country---who is left to look after these people---he would say I am happy with my decision you do whatever you want to in your lives.

Let me tell you people about servitude of a doctor to medicine and people---my mother is visiting her parents---it is before 1964---my little brother falls ill with pneumonia---my father--my uncle are far away posted away from home---couldn't reach back in time to give medicine---even though my grand father called a local doctor---poor guy did not know what t do---. My mother was sad for losing her boy---he was the good looking one---he was the nicer one---but she was never mad at my father---for she knew who she was married to.

Docotrs are people too and they have issues as well---but when these---the most esteemed people in any civilization start acting like ordinary hooligans---their act needs to be straightened up by sheer force---when they started pulling out the life lines out of the arms of patients---that moment onwards they lost any higher moral ground they were standing on.

 

[VCheng]

................

Docotrs are people too and they have issues as well---................

........ and unless those issues are resolved, doctors will behave as any other pool of highly trained professionals. They will seek other opportunities, elsewhere if need be.

It is as simple as that.

Either a society values its trained professionals, or it loses them by brain drain, regardless of the particular field. Case in point:

APPNA

 

[Wounded-Monk]

An update to what happended recently in top most institute of our country:

One of the senior resident doctor from AIIMS was assaulted at the cardiology OPD by 5 to 6 patient attendants. The resident was attending an overcrowded and uncontrollable OPD, when 5 to 6 patient attendants of a single patient forcibly entered the OPD room and demanded that their patient be seen out of turn on priority. When the doctor requested him to wait for his turn, he brutally assaulted the duty doctor causing severe injuries to the face and neck. When his colleague’s security guards and other patient’s attendants tired to intervene, the assailants brandished a fire-arm and issued death threats to the doctor. The expensive security system was found toothless to stop the assault highlighting the insecurity that prevails among the doctors at AIIMS. Even after such an incidence, the OPD’s continued in benefit of the patients.
Such incidents are common place at the apex institute, this being the second incidence in the same fortnight, in cardiology OPD. Incidents of violence against doctors are on the rise in the hospital in other departments as well. There have been similar incidents involving violence in the wards as well. It is important to mention here that the Cardiology OPD caters to a minimum of 1000 patients daily, about 200 of which are children, accompanied by almost 2000 attendants, by 5-6 resident doctors, in OPD space meant to accommodate 250 people. Such overcrowded OPDs become breeding grounds for incidences of violence; any even a small provocation can trigger a major tragedy as a stampede. No doctor can use the best of his abilities for patient welfare if his own life is under constant threat.
These incidents highlight the apathy of the administration in providing proper infrastructure for the large number of patients for whom AIIMS is the only ray of hope, and for the doctors who wish to serve them with all their calibre and capacity. In such a system, the patients are the biggest sufferers and the treating doctors are losing their enthusiasm, when their own security is not ensured.
On this note, the AIIMS residents and the Resident Doctors’ Association have demanded provision of proper OPD facilities, and have opted to discontinue elective services till concrete steps are implemented to ensure the security of the doctors as well as the innocent bystander patients. The emergency services shall continue uninterrupted.

 

[harpoon]

^^^ Dude, get off your high horse. Its not doctors alone that faces scum bags of the society on a daily basis. For God sake a manager of the MS plant was burnt to death..Compared to that this is nothing.

 

[Wounded-Monk]

^^^ Dude, get off your high horse. Its not doctors alone that faces scum bags of the society on a daily basis. For God sake a manager of the MS plant was burnt to death..Compared to that this is nothing.

Apparently a manager is worth a manager...a doctor is worth much more than few managers.....

Problem is people here are passing fatwas without having an idea of issue

 

[REHAN NIAZI FALCON]

Hi,

I was thinking of writing about the strike of the pakistani doctors just recently----I wanted to write that the doctor leaders behind this strike should be summarily executed and hanged---.

I took too much time---just felt the pain and didnot write anything----till about a couple of hours ago when it hit close to home---very close---.

I was visitng my sister this evening and my mother mentioned that one of my first cousins suffered n attack of extremely high blood pressure----there were no doctors available to see her to prescribe any medication---because they were on strike---she died the same day of brain hemorrhage.

In soviet union and china---these doctors would have been executed by the firing squad---in the u s fo a---they would have faced jail sentence for dereliction of duty---in the lawless lands of pakistan---nobody gives a sh-it----because they are ready building the c41 systems to counter other enemies---but don't know how to fix the malaise that is effecting the nation.

I feel sad for my little cousin sister---she had lived a very hard life---as a young child she developed an abcess on her hip---her mother and my aunt was careless----it grew so big that it ate up a lots of flesh---my aunt could have informed my father or other of her cousins who were doctors but no---thick headed that she was---a true pakistani my aunt---my cousin---she walked with a severe limp all her life---in the end---she just could not even get the basic medical service to save her life----.

The world so harsh to her right from childhood to the day she died----for a female---to live with a limp in a pakistani society is a battle in itself---even in an educated family.

well said brother.............