The recent spate of striking has left most people, especially those who require doctors the most, divided on the issue. People understand that doctors work in unhygienic, cramped conditions; work without substantial-enough pay and examine patients without basic equipment (gloves, towels, etc.), and yet they are angry that doctors have been striking for weeks. Is it fair to ask these brave doctors to endanger their lives everyday?
I think we all need a shot of empathy, change in perspective – a proverbial shoe-exchanging. Would these people, who are so critical of our medical staff, be able to work in nurseries (in which the air-conditioning isn’t functioning) for over forty hours, without a break, and without access to a shower? How about examining and treating HIV- and AIDS-infected patients without syringes, surgical masks and gloves?
I think not.
The government has offered a 2 – 26 percent increase, as opposed to the 50 percent requested by the striking medical personnel. This offer is an insult; doctors provide a service that is sorely needed, especially in a country like ours where violence-related injuries are a daily occurrence, and where our HIV-infection rate is scraping the ceiling; no wonder they are seeking greener pastures overseas. It’s sad that we only appreciate their services now that they are not providing them.
Sadly, this sentiment of appreciation and compassion (as I’ve pointed out) is not shared, and is even resisted, by our government. They even had the audacity to fire the people who have refused to go back to work! Talk about adding fuel to the fire, already raging out of control …
It is stark and unfortunate that those who have done nothing wrong, the patients (the elderly, the terminally ill, and so forth especially), have to suffer because of their belligerence.
It is yet to be seen how this will play out: doctors are now caught between what they swore to do when they took the Hippocratic Oath, and putting their own lives in peril – the proverbial battle between Life and Death rages on …
