YDA pushes for proposed federal structure

Spokes­man doubts Punjab could afford salari­es starti­ng at Rs75,000 per month.

LAHORE:

Officials of the Young Doctors Association of Punjab want the provincial government to replicate the proposed new service structure for doctors employed by the federal government, as announced by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Monday.

The prime minister told the National Assembly that a summary for a new career path for medical professionals had been approved. Under the new service structure, paramedics and nurses would be placed in grades 1 to 7. Doctors would start in grade 8, equivalent to BPS-17, with a salary of Rs75,000 a month.

“The federal government has tackled the issue at its root,” said YDA Punjab official Aftab Ashraf. “The position that we have advocated and continue to advocate is that doctors cannot be categorised with other health workers. There should be a separate scale for professionals.”

Junior doctors went on strike at public teaching hospitals in Lahore in March and early April demanding better pay. The strike was called off after the chief minister met with the protesters and set up a committee to come up with a solution. Doctors in federal government hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad also protested.

Ashraf said that under the structure proposed by the federal government, doctors would get a time-scale promotion to the next grade. He said that the federal government had put added pressure upon the provincial government to meet the demands of the YDA, which led the strike.

Jinnah Hospital YDA president Abu Bakr Gondal, who is part of the chief minister’s committee, said that the YDA’s charter of demands was very similar to the federal government proposal. He said that the YDA Punjab would look at the written notification and discuss it at its executive council.

“Traditionally the federal government’s policies in such issues are followed by the provincial government,” said Gondal. “We think this will help and we will try to bring it to the committee.”

Punjab government spokesman Senator Pervez Rasheed said that the financial burden on the province of introducing such a service structure would be far greater because it ran more hospitals and employed more personnel than the federal government. He said that the federal government employed up to 4,000 workers while the province employed up to 25,000 workers.

“We will take a wait-and-see approach for now rather than making a commitment. We are actively listening to the proposals in the committee meetings,” he said.

King Edward Medical College University Vice Chancellor Prof Asad Aslam, who is also on the committee, also questioned whether the proposed federal model was workable because Punjab oversaw far more hospitals and personnel. “The numbers game is what is challenging for the government,” he said.

Pakistan Medical Association General Secretary Izhar Chaudhry said doctors should have a separate pay structure as their training was far more extensive than other health workers. He said that the Punjab government got the largest share from the federal government for healthcare. “The question is really what the priorities of the government are,” he said. “Without delivery personnel you can’t run the institutions.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th, 2011.