The Young Doctors' Association Punjab strike lasted for almost 3 weeks and left in its wake 1000's of patients deprived of rightful medical care. Amid media reports of clash, chaos, deaths and police actions, the strike was eventually called off on the 9th of July 2012, without the original YDA demand for a service structure adequately
met. As such, it can be regarded as a futile episode of wrangling between the healthcare professionals and the Punjab Health Department.
The YDA strike must be viewed as a demonstration on part of all cadres of doctors working in public teaching hospitals, and not just fresh graduates -dubbed 'Young Doctors'. In fact, it can be seen that the senior cadres of doctors actively backed YDA demands while continuing to perform their duties at the hospital. Pakistan Medical Association -the premier professional body representing doctors across the country explicitly supported YDA demands, and in fact was part of initial negotiations at the Health Secretariat on day 3 of strike. Medical Teachers Association also saw many of its core demands being represented by YDA charter, though it backed off its support for the protesting doctors at an earlier stage as crisis worsened.
The detente eventually was broken by the rather tough handling by the Punjab Government. The Health Department consistently held on to its position despite worsening humanitarian crisis. It exercised all its options including enacting emergency laws, police arrests, entangling protesting doctors in court cases and calling in Army doctors.
Young Doctors significantly dented their public position as crisis deepened. Despite their significant reduction in demands, PML-N Government had decided early to take it to the bitter end. It can be said that the sheer extent of proposed budgetary expansion combined with the acuteness of the crisis severely limited the extent of compromise that could be made. Eventually, YDA's partner organizations -PMA and MTA began to dissociate themselves from their younger cadres.
The crisis also highlighted the role of the media in portraying such deep crisis and setting up the national agenda. While print media showed a level of bipartisanship, Electronic media engaged in significant mudslinging and encouraged unneeded political divisions on the issue.
Following is an objective timeline of events as they unfolded throughout the crisis. It is hoped that for the interest of the general public and the medical profession, the events would be closely studied, for they have the potential to create dangerous precedents for small cohorts of such professionals working to deliver critically important services, including firemen, disaster relief workers, even policemen. For they stand to gain significantly by holding off their services to the society.
Legend:
Each bubble represents an event, shown as dot on the timeline.
Click on the bubble to make it expand and show links to various news sources
slide the timescale at the botton to the left to zoom in
met. As such, it can be regarded as a futile episode of wrangling between the healthcare professionals and the Punjab Health Department.
The YDA strike must be viewed as a demonstration on part of all cadres of doctors working in public teaching hospitals, and not just fresh graduates -dubbed 'Young Doctors'. In fact, it can be seen that the senior cadres of doctors actively backed YDA demands while continuing to perform their duties at the hospital. Pakistan Medical Association -the premier professional body representing doctors across the country explicitly supported YDA demands, and in fact was part of initial negotiations at the Health Secretariat on day 3 of strike. Medical Teachers Association also saw many of its core demands being represented by YDA charter, though it backed off its support for the protesting doctors at an earlier stage as crisis worsened.
The detente eventually was broken by the rather tough handling by the Punjab Government. The Health Department consistently held on to its position despite worsening humanitarian crisis. It exercised all its options including enacting emergency laws, police arrests, entangling protesting doctors in court cases and calling in Army doctors.
Young Doctors significantly dented their public position as crisis deepened. Despite their significant reduction in demands, PML-N Government had decided early to take it to the bitter end. It can be said that the sheer extent of proposed budgetary expansion combined with the acuteness of the crisis severely limited the extent of compromise that could be made. Eventually, YDA's partner organizations -PMA and MTA began to dissociate themselves from their younger cadres.
The crisis also highlighted the role of the media in portraying such deep crisis and setting up the national agenda. While print media showed a level of bipartisanship, Electronic media engaged in significant mudslinging and encouraged unneeded political divisions on the issue.
Following is an objective timeline of events as they unfolded throughout the crisis. It is hoped that for the interest of the general public and the medical profession, the events would be closely studied, for they have the potential to create dangerous precedents for small cohorts of such professionals working to deliver critically important services, including firemen, disaster relief workers, even policemen. For they stand to gain significantly by holding off their services to the society.
Legend:
Each bubble represents an event, shown as dot on the timeline.
Click on the bubble to make it expand and show links to various news sources
slide the timescale at the botton to the left to zoom in
