uhammad Waseem, a 40-year-old private sector worker, has twice been to the Out Patient Department of Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Rawalpindi, with his ailing mother without getting to see a doctor. The doctors are on a protest strike.

“My mother is 75. She had an OPD checkup last week but doctors did not show up due to a strike. After a couple of days, I went there again but the strike had not ended,” he says, adding, “I rode nearly 10 kilometers by bike and took a short leave from office. In the end, I had to take my mother to a private hospital and pay over a thousand rupees.”

Patients at three government-run hospitals have been suffering from the situation for several days. The Young Doctors Association called a strike after Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz took punitive action against doctors after a fire broke out in the pediatric ward of a hospital in Sahiwal, killing at least 13 infants. The cause of fire was later identified as a malfunctioning air-conditioning system. The YDA began protesting the termination and arrest of doctors and staff following the incident.

This led to a province-wide strike by doctors demanding a judicial inquiry into the matter. The doctors’ association is also seeking an apology from the chief minister. They want the health secretary, who according to them ordered the police to arrest the doctors without any inquiry, removed.

The Benazir Hospital management confirmed that the doctors had called a strike. They also said that some senior doctors were covering for the younger doctors on strike and treating patients in the OPD.

“The government must address the demands of new doctors once for all. The doctors should opt for some other ways to raise their voice. Thousands of people who come to public hospitals every day should not suffer.”

“We have a very clear demand. There should be an independent investigation into the Sahiwal incident,” YDA Rawalpindi representative Dr Hamayun Warriach says. He says that the association is united and the OPDs in all three major health facilities in Rawalpindi are not functioning. “In spite of that, emergency services were never stopped. In some cases, patients were referred to senior doctors in various wards,” he says.

In the recent past, there was another strike and suspension of OPDs of the Punjab province public health facilities by the YDA, including in Rawalpindi, against an attack on a doctor in Lahore.

“Such strikes by the YDA, sadly, have become routine. They announce suspension of services over various issues,” says a senior doctor, speaking on the condition of anonymity. He says people are unhappy with these disruptions of service.

“The government must address the demands of new doctors once for all. The doctors should choose some other way to raise their voice. Thousands of people who come to public hospitals every day should not suffer,” said Waseem.

Another patient said that suspending health services was not the right way to protest. “Ultimately, the common man bears the brunt of the tussle between the doctors and the government,” he said. He also demanded that the government pay heed to the demands of the doctors.

The writer is a staff member. He can be reached at vaqargillanigmail.com.He tweets at @waqargillani