Thankfully, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Doctors’ Council has announced an end to its strike. Chief Minister Mahmood Khan held a detailed meeting with the KPDC office bearers and promised to look into their demands. He also set up two committees. The weeklong strike had made it very inconvenient for the patients of whom many were forced to seek private consultants for treatment. The source of all trouble was the proposed formation of regional and district health authorities. The KPDC sees the move as a bid to privatise public hospitals. The doctors say this will result into costly treatment for patients. The doctors were also demanding the removal of the health minister for allegedly misbehaving with a senior doctor. This was the second time this month doctors called a strike and then called it off. The earlier strike, called on May 4 over the formation of health authorities, started on May 14. In Punjab, the Young Doctors’ Association has been on a strike against the government’s plans to award autonomy to public hospitals. It seems that doctors have become synonymous with strikes. Most of the time, they hit the headlines for strikes and agitation and beating patients’ attendants. We have yet to see the day when our doctors hit the international media for their professional exploits. It would, however, not be out of place to mention the poor job structure and missing workplace facilities, which make doctors’ jobs and careers a nightmare. After a relentless struggle, doctors in the Punjab under the YDA leadership won a promising job structure for themselves. This should have ended the strain of strikes and resulted in improved service delivery in hospitals. That has not happened. Doctors are frequently reported for beating up patients’ attendants and get away with it without any departmental of police action against them. Nurses and paramedics too have taken a leaf from their book and started calling strikes. The government should do something to end these strikes. But it has yet to clearly explain its position on the proposed Medical Teaching Institutes Reforms Act, which the doctors say will turn public hospitals into private, moneymaking facilities. Their concerns are not out of place as the Act does allow doctors to use hospital premises for private consultation in the evening. The policy is bound to affect service delivery in the morning too. The government’s plan to grant financial and management autonomy to public hospitals looks good on the paper as it promises to make bureaucratic red tape history but autonomy has a way of degenerating into authoritarian rule by those at the helm. The government owes the public an explanation on the MTI Reforms Act. Doctors owe the public an explanation for their unprofessional conduct. *