Issues unresolved: Unpaid cardiologists seek greener pastures

Doctors at PIMS cardiology department consider signing their resignations after working unpaid for seven months.

ISLAMABAD:

The cardiology department of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) is at crossroads, as most of the senior doctors want to quit.

A team of doctors, comprising assistant professors and anaesthesiologists, told The Express Tribune that many of them had not been paid salaries for the last seven months. They asked not to be named.

One of the doctors said, “If the government is reluctant to release our salaries, then how will we survive, who will run this department when there will be no cardiologist left to run it?”

The state-of-the-art 300 bed department was completed in 2010. More than 300 patients visit the Outpatient Department every day. However, the newly-formed department is waiting to be equipped with machinery, and the prospect of doctors continuing practice at the hospital seems bleak.

“The government is treating us like orphans and paying no heed to our problems. We are being forced us to seek better job opportunities abroad. About two out of eight doctors have left and others are planning to follow suit,” a doctor said.

They also complained that the government was not offering them pledged privileges, including residence and proper office stations in the department.

Currently, there is a team of 15 specialists comprising cardiologists, cardiac surgeons and anaesthesiologists who run the department.

In the beginning, only 60 staff members including cardiologists, paramedics and anaesthesiologist among others were hired against 360 posts. A year later, owing to turnover of the patients, more staff was required for which the Ministry of Health advertised jobs in various newspapers in May-June 2009.

Eight doctors were hired by the ministry in September 2010 against these advertised posts. They have not been given a single penny for their services to-date.

“We approached the ministry several times, but did not get any satisfactory response. All we were told was that they had to write a letter to the Ministry of Finance, which is still pending,” one of the cardiologists said. The doctor added that two doctors had already left for abroad, while others have started looking for new jobs.

“Now only one cardiac surgeon is left to cater to hundreds of patients coming to the hospital,” the doctor said.

Executive Director Pims, Dr Mehmood Jamal, said the hospital administration has forwarded the matter the Accountant General Pakistan Revenues and is waiting for their response.

“These are government jobs and such delays are inevitable. We will follow proper procedure, therefore it might take some time,” he said.

Responding to a question, he said the cardiologists are not leaving because of salary issues. Most, he said, have left due to personal reasons, and others have gotten better job opportunities abroad.

Established in 2007, the department has carried out about 1,150 bypass surgeries to-date, and many others are scheduled in the near future.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2011.