Daggers drawn: Young doctors say no to central induction

LAHORE: Banners across hospitals reading say no to central induction are a testament to the degree of restlessness prevailing among doctors across the Punjab.

Seminars are being convened to mobilise doctors against the Health Department on this account. It seems that the Young Doctors’ Association (YDA) is on the verge of orchestrating another movement. The association says the policy’s introduction will prove to be the last straw when it comes to the unravelling of public healthcare across the Punjab.

Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafique said the policy is primarily premised on just three points. These, he said, are need-based induction, transparency and merit. “Paucity of anaesthetists, neurologists and cardiac surgeons is commonplace. On the other hand, there is an overabundance of gynaecologists,” Rafique said.  He said the policy will enable the adequate placement of doctors across all departments. “With this, doctors can also be stationed across the Punjab in line with the department’s decentralisation policy,” Rafique said.

The chief minister’s adviser said postgraduate residents are appointed across health facilities on an institutional basis. Rafique said appointments in accordance with the police will help break the monopoly of individuals who wield disproportionate influence across hospitals. “Some people influence appointments to secure placements for their favourites,” he said. Rafique said the Health Department will not tolerate this any longer.

He said a committee of impartial academics from various medical colleges formulated the policy. Rafique said they could not be influenced into doing anything. He said the committee will decide need-based induction of doctors across various departments. Rafique said the committee will also decide which hospitals are best for them. “Please do not politicise the issue. This policy is pivotal to the department’s decentralisation policy,” he said. In the wake of the policy’s announcement, the YDA has been regularly organising seminars to raise awareness against it. The association believes that the controversy is not limited to one single issue. Rather, it believes, it is about the future of the YDA and the Health Department. The association has pledged to oppose it till it tastes victory.

Zafarullah of Mayo Hospital YDA said over 1,000 doctors flocked to seminars against the policy at Mayo and Jinnah Hospitals. “The policy spells doom for merit,” he said. Zafarullah said the policy has been formulated to keep young doctors under the bureaucracy’s thumb. He said politicians and bureaucrats with vested interests will decide who obtained postgraduate training and who did not following the policy’s introduction. “The government might have to grapple with yet another province-wide agitation if the policy is introduced,” Zafarullah warned.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 23^rd, 2016.