Docs catch strike virus

The strike virus plaguing the country has gotten transmitted to the most unlikely lot: doctors. It´s unfortunate that docs have taken the virus from the political parties and have used it for their own narrow interests, abandoning their basic sense of duty. Public and private hospitals on Monday shut down all but emergency services across the country, denying medical aid to the dying and the needy. Before we discuss the merits and demerits of the demands put forward by the Nepal Medical Association (NMA), the umbrella organization of doctors in the country, we want to make one thing clear: Medical practitioners cannot and should not go on strike under any pretext. This is not a question of any political or constitutional right of the citizen -- it´s a compromise you make when you choose to become a doctor. We, therefore, deplore the unfortunate and irresponsible decision taken by NMA to go on strike and ask it to withdraw it immediately and unconditionally.



All that said, we agree with the legitimate demand of the docs to ensure their security and, in the same breath, condemn the government for failing to do so. The government enacted the Health Professionals Protection Act after repeated cases of vandalism and manhandling at hospitals but has failed to enforce it like any other law. Only a week ago, lawmaker of the Rastriya Janashakti Party, Arjun Rai, manhandled renowned surgeon Dr Upendra Devkota but got away with it. When a lawmaker can descend so low as to manhandle one of the most respected doctors of the country what message does it send to the public? By not holding Rai to account the state has added insult to injury for the medical fraternity. We demand that Rai be immediately brought to book.



Riding on this justified demand for the protection of medical practitioners, the docs have also pushed for some ludicrous demands. Two of them being that docs be given automatic 9th level service entry at public hospitals as against the sixth level entry for any civil service official, and that docs putting in seven years of service be given duty exemption on import of vehicles. Isn´t this outrageous and shameful at the same time? The docs are displaying a ´we-are-more-equal-than-others´ attitude, which is true only in that they are more fortunate and privileged compared to the average citizens of this country. How can they demand tax waiver on the import of vehicles when such tax money is, at least theoretically, supposed to subsidize basic medicines such as the re-hydration fluid that the poor can´t afford to buy at market price

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