WHEN industrial workers go on strike, lives are usually not put at risk. However, when doctors do so, it can literally be a matter of life and death. As per a report in this paper, there have been deaths at Quetta's Civil Hospital recently due to the lack of medical attention. Doctors in Balochistan have been observing a strike for several weeks demanding the same salaries and perks their colleagues in other provinces are getting. Several more deaths have been reported province-wide over the past few weeks. A health official claimed that young doctors had forcibly stopped their seniors from attending to cases in the operation theatre and labour room, charges the young doctors have denied. Earlier this month, several major public hospitals in Karachi also experienced crippling shutdowns due to a doctors' strike, while not too long ago Punjab went through similar trauma.

As we have said before, such methods of protest do not suit a profession as critical as medicine. It is deplorable that lives have been lost due to such 'protests'. Indeed, the salary of young doctors may be too little in these times of high inflation, especially considering the nature of their job, while the claims of the Balochistan doctors that the government has refused to listen to their demands may also be true. However, the Pakistan Medical Association and other relevant quarters need to chalk out a plan to ensure that those in the medical profession can communicate their genuine grievances to the government without putting the lives of patients at risk. The government also needs to listen to the doctors. Callousness from the two sides is unacceptable; both the government and the doctors must settle their differences so that the sick do not suffer due to what is essentially a labour dispute.