ISLAMABAD: A doctor has submitted a petition in the
Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the long working hours medical
professionals are made to work, especially resident doctors across the
country.
In her petition, Dr Nafeesa Hiba has said resident doctors work 102 hours a week and continuously for 30 hours every other day.
She
has said that doctors in India work 48-hour weeks and even less in the
Western countries. Dr Hiba has said doctors work in unhygienic
conditions and are not provided with proper food and safe drinking
water. She said this drains doctors and that many women doctors leave
the professions due to this.
Dr Hiba filed the petition
through her counsel Saimul Haq Satti and has cites the minister of state
for National Health Services Regulations and Coordination (NHSRC),
secretary NHSRC, chief secretaries Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,
Balochistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, president College of Physicians
and Surgeons Pakistan, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, the
attorney general of Pakistan and the advocate general Islamabad as
respondents.
Petitioner says resident doctors work 102 hours weekly which damages their well-being, endangers patients’ lives
The petitioner has said she is a qualified MBBS doctor and
that doctors are made to work 102 hours a week without off days
including post graduate trainees, house officers and medical officers in
tertiary care hospitals.
She said the long working hours
is damaging to the well being of doctors and also affects patient care.
She has said work schedules for doctors are unregulated.
Dr
Hiba has said in her petition that doctors get illnesses like insomnia
because they do not have proper spaces for taking naps and are not
allowed enough time to socialise outside of work, which is a basic human
right. The petitioner likened the situation of doctors to slavery and
that it not just that they are made to follow such a hectic schedule
with no additional pay.
The petitioner has also raised a
few questions before the court. She has asked if medical professionals-
who save human life and require extensive training and study- come under
the definition of “workmen” so they can be entitled to benefits under
industrial laws and why if not. If the answer to that question is yes,
then what should the “maximum possible duty/working schedule limit” for
medical professional working in tertiary care hospitals run by the
government.
She has asked if doctors who work under huge
stress will be responsible for negligence if an incident occurs or if
the head of department, medical superintendents, doctors, vice
chancellors of medical universities, post graduate trainees or house
officers will be responsible instead. She has said accidents happen that
due to the long working hours doctors work which endanger human lives.
She has said this creates mistrust between doctors and patients when
doctors cannot treat them as well when they are exhausted as this
creates the impression that doctors are being wilfully negligent.
She
has said making doctors work more than 102 hours a week is a violation
of fundamental rights and of the Constitution’s Article 25 which calls
for equal opportunity in public employment.
She has
quoted a study which says residents who work more than 24 hours are 73pc
more at risk of needle-stick injuries and are 2.3 times more likely to
have car accidents. The study says 24 hours without sleep slows reaction
time similar to alcohol intoxication.
Petitioner has
prayed to the court that the governments, medical institutions and
universities under command, control or management of the respondents be
required to amend their unlawful rules and regulations or the working
schedules of doctors.
