Doctors need to be protected

The manner in which protesting doctors were baton charged and arrested in Quetta on Monday was simply appalling. The Balochistan government must now explain not only the manner in which the protest was handled by the police, but also what caused it in the first place. No doubt the coronavirus threat, unprecedented as it is in so many ways, has stretched everybody to the limit and doctors must rise to their role as frontline warriors in this existential battle. But to expect them to do their job without protective equipment is like sending soldiers behind enemy lines without any weapons, or making bomb disposal experts defuse explosives without any tools. The provincial government's position that the protesting doctors weren't dealing with coronavirus patients and they were arrested "for their own protection" cannot be accepted at all. Firstly, it's not just the doctors directly dealing with confirmed positive cases that are in danger of contracting the virus themselves. Indeed, as the Young Doctors Association (YDA) informed the public, most of the 15 doctors that have unfortunately caught the virus were not directly dealing with Covid-19 patients. Hospitals are visited by hundreds of patients suffering from all sorts of diseases every day, and there's no way of knowing who does or does not have the coronavirus till they are tested, so all doctors are literally in the line of fire as soon as they get to their jobs. Surely, the government would have been aware of this fact.

And secondly, there's something very irresponsible about roughing up and arresting doctors and then saying the whole thing was for their benefit. As regards violation of Section 144, since the doctors would never have come out if they were given what they needed to begin with, or at least when they asked for it, who should really be held responsible at the end of the day? And wouldn't things have taken a better turn if somebody important in the government, perhaps the chief minister, had lent a sympathetic ear to the doctors' very legitimate complaints before beating, humiliating and arresting them? Someone should also explain how putting them in cramped cells enhances their protection. By putting all the blame for the incident squarely on doctors, the Balochistan government is only embarrassing itself. Now how will other doctors feel going into hospitals when it seems that the government is not too concerned about their safety? And, for that matter, how good does the government look now that this news story has been flashed across front pages and bulletins around the world?

There's another very important aspect about the incident that the government seems to have missed. Protecting doctors must be the number-one priority not just because it's the right thing to do but also because this crucial fight against the pandemic would be completely lost without them. If doctors start succumbing to the virus, and a lot have, around the world, who will the government then order into the battlefield, with or without protective gear? And if it turns out that doctors were put in harm's way because authorities refused or were unable to provide them with something as essential as protective clothing and masks, then where would we all stand? Now the military has had to step forward and dispatch essential protective equipment to Balochistan.

There is, of course, more than a grain of truth in the argument that the doctors could have used a better way of protesting. But let's not forget that they were being pushed into a situation that meant certain infection and perhaps also death not just for themselves but also for their families. No person in his right mind, doctor or not, would be willing to take such risks; especially if such a situation arose because of someone else's dereliction of duty. These shortages arose because relevant authorities have been behind the curve in terms of preparedness. Essential supplies should have been arranged when the virus first began spreading outside China; long before it reached Pakistan. Now, that it has been reported that the army has dispatched the needed supplies to Quetta it is hoped that doctors would resume work with the same zest and zeal that is required of them in this war against the coronavirus pandemic.