Jamshoro doctors want money while Karachi trainees yearn for security

Young doctors in Jamshoro consider moving to Karachi in search of higher salaries.


Saher Baloch January 26, 2011

KARACHI: Young doctors in Jamshoro want higher salaries which is why many of them are considering moving to Karachi, where the pay is better. But their counterparts in Karachi caution the grass is not necessarily greener on this side.

“We work in the worst sanitary conditions and with the most indifferent attendants but the security issues are the worst. I do not feel safe at all,” says a Civil Hospital, Karachi (CHK) post-graduate (PG) trainee, Habib Ansari. “A good salary can secure a good future but if I’m not alive to enjoy it then what is the point?”

After several cases in which doctors were beaten up by different groups, the trainees often choose to leave their lab coats at home and seldom wear their stethoscopes around their necks— an attempt to hide their identity. The administration calls in the police or Rangers but they leave in 10 days and we are left vulnerable once again, says Faisal.

PGs at the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) in Jamshoro beg to differ. Last year, PG students from hospitals in Sindh held a series of protests to demand higher salaries. The Sindh government gave in and eventually the salary was raised from Rs12,000 to Rs22,000. But one year later, trainee doctors at LUMHS are still working 36-hour shifts in return for a measly salary of Rs12,000 per month.

The only solution to their woes, they feel, is to move to Karachi or find a job in the non-profit sector, which would give them a better chance at higher salaries, says LUMHS PG Dr Saifur Rehman. “Some of our brightest students have switched professions because at the end of the day, they have to support their families and the low salaries and heavy workload does not pay off,” adds Rehman.

The matter has been taken to the university’s vice-chancellor many times, but students complain that the administration is unwilling to address their queries. “They are never there to reply to our complaints,” says another student.

“As it is, we do not receive salaries for our first year of training and they [the university] say it’s because there is shortage of funds,” says Dr Rehman. He urged the government to apply a uniform policy across the province. Students are aware that there is a significant difference in the salaries of trainees in Jamshoro and those at CHK and demand equality.

CHK trainees are not necessarily concerned about their ‘average salary’. They do, however, worry about security, about being constantly harassed by patient attendants and having to deal with under-trial prisoners.

Faisal Rehman has been working at the CHK emergency ward for a year and says a few hours on duty there is equal to a year’s lesson. “A hefty salary cannot save me from the violence and ruckus that we face here every day,” says Rehman. Every medical student knows what they are getting into and it’s not a matter of making money, but of gaining respect.”

Students recalled the case of a trainee doctor who left the profession after he was beaten up by a mob. “He packed his bags and left the hospital.”

Published in The Express Tirbune, January 26th, 2011.

COMMENTS (2)

dr. saif | 13 years ago | Reply very correct.
dr. saif | 13 years ago | Reply it is vet correct and exact. to the point. nice work by saher baloch
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