Health employees have ended their 47 days long strike after reaching a settlement

with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government. This is one of many strikes improvised by
the health department to get the government to listen to their demands. The recent
increase in prices, along with a shortage of medicines, and the lack of increase in
the pays of the doctors has resulted in a deadlock between the government and the
public hospital employees. The government needs to address the demands made by
doctors if they see that privatization is no longer feasible, the government should
conduct a private investigation of the matter to assess the progress and to
conclude whether or not it is the best way forward for the KP health system.
The protest was devised by 45 thousand health sector employees of over 15 hundred
hospitals across the province. They were determined to march towards the provincial
assembly before they were beaten up by the KP police. Such treatment should not be
meted out to the people of the country. Peaceful assembly is a right granted by the
constitution of Pakistan and if protestors are not disrupting the peaceful life of
the vicinity, they should be allowed to voice their concerns. If an aggrieved group
is aggravated further, they are bound to retaliate. The recent settlement is also
not very assuring because the formation of a committee to look into the demands of
the group was promised earlier this year as well but as soon as the staff went back
to duty, no such committee was formed.
The chairman of Prime Minister Health Task Force is said to have thrashed a surgeon
along with the architect of MTI and RDHA, and Health Minister Dr Hisham Inamullah
Khan at a teaching hospital in KP five months ago. The public hospital staff is no
longer interested in collaborating with Dr Burki and that alone creates hindrances
in the process of reforms.
Health reforms are a need of the country and the government should involve the
stakeholders in the process. The doctors agitated at this point are the workforce
that will be involved in bringing about any change that the government wishes to
fulfill.