Doctors and patients

As has happened many times before at our public hospitals, the often strained relations between doctors and patients flared up into a situation where junior doctors backed by nurses boycotted their duties at the busy outpatient department of the Lady Reading Hospital for the second day on Sunday. The hospital is the largest government-run facility in Peshawar and treats hundreds of patients daily. The problem at the facility began this past Friday after a patient badly injured in an accident was brought to the hospital; and subsequently died. His relatives blamed the hospital staff for neglect and staged a protest. It is reported they also beat up and manhandled members of the medical staff. Following this, junior doctors went on strike, refusing to attend the OPD patients. This infuriated the relatives of other patients who also started protesting – in some cases resulting in fist fights with doctors.
The unruly situation continued into Sunday. Senior management at the hospital say they are attempting to calm things down and bring doctors back to the now-deserted OPD. However, what has happened at LRH is a reflection of the overall situation at the government hospital run for citizens. In most cases it is the poorer and more desperate citizens who visit these hospitals. There have been many incidents involving alleged neglect before. This is the latest in this series of incidents. What we need is greater priority for government health facilities so that a monitoring body can ensure that the needs of patients are met. This is currently not the case. Ethical questions are also raised when doctors boycott duties. Their grievances may be very real but when they walk away from wards they leave possibly critically ill patients without care. This should not be permitted under any circumstances. At any hospital the welfare of patients must be a priority for all. When cases of alleged neglect occur it is necessary that these be impartially probed so that the truth can be uncovered and action taken accordingly. In some cases the lack of trust in the public sector healthcare system has triggered protests. All this will change only if there is a proper system of accountability.