Illegal occupation: YDA to take back hostel ‘forcefully’

President YDA says they have been requesting NAB to vacate the hostel since January 2009.

ISLAMABAD:

If the Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC) Hostel is not handed over to the young doctors, they will vacate it forcefully, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was told on Saturday.

Talking to The Express Tribune, President Young Doctors Association (YDA) Rawalpindi Dr Muhammad Haroon said that they have been requesting NAB to vacate the hostel since January 2009.

“NAB was allotted a deadline two years ago by which they were to vacate the hostel, but the building has not been handed over to the doctors to-date,” he said. Dr Haroon added that last month, principal of RMC, Dr Afzal Farooqi, wrote two letters to NAB but they did not yield any response.

He said that Young Doctors Association was informed on April 4 that the RMC hostel had been vacated and a few empty rooms were also shown.

However, around 16 cars were parked outside the building which “clearly gave an idea that it was still being occupied”.

Later a meeting of 250-300 doctors was held in Holy Family Hospital in which they demanded representation in Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) and Academic Council.

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



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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.