K-P health ministry raises questions over Young doctors’ strike call

Health Minister Shahram Tarakai says they have accepted all demands of doctors

PESHAWAR: The health ministry has raised eyebrows over a strike call issued by the Young Doctors Association (YDA) for Tuesday [today].

Officials at the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) health department said that the strike call was strange since all demands of doctors in the province, including pay raise, health professional allowance, regularisation, increased stipend for trainee medical officers and others, had been addressed by the provincial government.

They added that no other province had facilitated health professionals as much as the K-P government had, adding that a fraction of the community had been constantly impeding the implementation of health reforms suggesting that these issues were politically motivated.

“Show me a single demand which the health ministry has refused to accept,” a senior health official dealing with the issue said while requesting not to be named since he was not authorised to speak to media.

“Even the doctors’ community was divided since a large number has refused to support the call [strike]” he added.

The official stated that Health Professional Allowance (HPA) for medical officers and dental surgeons had been increased from Rs15,000 in 2013 to Rs42,000 in 2017. For district specialist [urban areas] in Category A, B and C was increased from Rs10,000 in 2013 to Rs60,000, Rs80,000 and Rs100,000 respectively in 2017.

Similarly, the HPA for district specialist [rural areas] in Category A, B and C hospitals had been increased from Rs10,000 in 2013 to Rs80,000, Rs100,000 and Rs140,000 respectively in 2017, he said adding that most of the doctors had been regularised and a service structure had been provided.

“Even nurses and paramedic staff receive Rs10,000 HPA while the dress and mess allowance for nurses has been increased from Rs1,100 in 2013 to Rs10,000 in 2017,” the official said adding not even a single MO was recruited in 2013 but 3,472 were recruited in 2017 alone.

“Earlier, doctors would be appointed in BPS-17 and would retire in the same scale. But now doctors can be promoted to BPS-18, 19 and even 20 completely on merit,” the official argued.

Meanwhile, K-P Health Minister Shahram Khan Tarakai echoed what the health official had said that his ministry had accepted all demands of health practitioners in the province and that it was the time that these employees delivered.

“We want nothing but the facilitation of poor patients so that they did not suffer,” the minister said.

“We pay Rs100,000 to TMOs - show me on single TMO who receives the same amount of money in other provinces,” he said adding that the Medical Teaching Institution Act has further facilitated patients but some individuals had lost their perks and privileges which were why they were pushing the young doctors to protest against the government.

The minister raised questions over who was behind the propaganda that Post Graduate Medical Institute (PGMI) was being dissolved and had instigated doctors to strike.

“I assure all the doctors that the PGMI will never be dissolved,” Tarakai stated categorically.

“As far as I know, the government is not interested in the action. But when it comes to disrupting the system and adding to the miseries of poor patients, I am sure the government would not sit idle since the district administration has already imposed Section 144,” a health department official informed.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2017.