Pindiites must be grateful to all doctors

Rawalpindi city residents are not aware of the difficulties the doctors face. Even though their own child might be suffering from fever, they have to leave their child to relatives as they have to go to treat hospital patients while their own child suffers.

“When treating viral fever the doctor gets exposed to the virus. During surgery the doctor gets cuts and pricks that may transmit disease from patient to doctor. While dressing the diabetic foot, doctors feel nauseated by smell and do not feel like eating for the entire day,” says Hinna Batool.

During a delivery the patient often passes urine that may spill on the doctor. When a neurosurgeon operates for hours continuously he loses track of time and forgets to eat or sleep. A cardiologist is exposed to dangerous levels of radiation in the lab. For every delivery case the doctor is at the beck and call of the hospital. Lady Doctors have to work even late at night and then be back to work early next day,” adds Hinna.

“Now you can well imagine how the doctors get exposed when treating the COVID-19 patients. We don’t know that the life span of doctors is 10 years less than the public average because of stress? A doctor doesn’t just work for money. With their level of intelligence they could earn more money had they chosen other professions,” says Zabeeh Hussain.

Imaan Zaidi, a lady doctor, says: “It is very difficult for us even to have peace and quiet. Even when there are no patients, the thought of past patients, ongoing treatments and learning new things consumes us completely. We can’t squeeze time for afternoon naps and evening walks.”

“As a professional, things change considerably. But then we have to learn to draw a line and take bare minimum time for eating out and having conversations. Not enough of us are doing so,” says Mohsin Kazmi, another doctor.

Aryan Askari says: “The difficulties of the doctors do not end here. Those who have passed the FCPS part-1 examination and have received appointment letters as Medical Officers from the Ministry of Health and live up to the criteria for induction as paid trainee medical officers to complete the mandatory training in teaching hospitals for taking the part-II examination in diverse specialties, voice apprehension over lack of slots for training in the government hospitals.”

“Several candidates are struggling for residency and they are not getting unpaid residency even. Reasons behind the less number of paid slots is that the number of exams of FCPS-1 is increased to six in a year while there are two time induction for residency in a year. Therefore, the shortage of paid slots is natural,” says Farasat Ali.