KARACHI:
Nearly half a million doctors in Sindh government hospitals will benefit from bigger allowances, some of which are almost 50% higher. In addition to this, the Sindh government also announced for the first time financial incentives to encourage doctors to work in the rural areas.
The total package is worth Rs2.9 billion and will be given to doctors in the upcoming budget, announced Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah at a press conference with the heath and finance ministers on Saturday. For Sindh doctors who have been protesting, the increments may not be exactly what they envisioned, but it is a start. Fresh MBBS doctors doing their house jobs at Sindh government hospitals were being paid a stipend of Rs12,000 (They are not paid salaries). This has been increased to Rs18,000 a month. Postgraduate doctors, for example those studying for the FCPS part 1 exams, were paid Rs18,000 which has been increased to Rs22,000. The non-practicing allowance for doctors in grades 17 and 18 has been bumped up to Rs4,000 from a meagre Rs400. Doctors working in grades 19 and 20 will now receive Rs6,000 instead of Rs700.
The government has also decided to try and entice doctors to practice in the under-served rural areas by increasing this pay. “We have fixed Rs6,000 for the doctors of grades 17 to 18 who are working in the rural areas,” said the chief minister. And Rs8,000 is the new stipend for officers in grade 19. A casualty allowance (as an incentive to work in accident and emergency centres) has been enhanced to Rs6,000.
This plan would be presented for approval to the cabinet and then it would be included in the fiscal budget for 2011-12.
The CM agreed that they could not give doctors the same salaries as their counterparts in the Punjab. “Punjab is a bigger province with more resources compared to Sindh,” Shah said. “But I can assure you that if the Punjab government announces an extraordinary package for doctors, then we will also consider a similar package in the budget.”
He emphasised that all doctors working at Sindh government hospitals, other social welfare hospitals and projects would benefit equally from the package. For his part, Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed said that the increases will remove the sense of deprivation that Sindh-based doctors felt. This claim was supported in part by Dr Karim Khwaja of the Peoples’ Doctors Forum in Sindh, who said that as many as 600,000 doctors will benefit.
Sindh government doctors are separate from the ones who work at federally run hospitals such as Jinnah hospital.
Devolution
When asked about the departments being devolved to the provinces after the 18th amendment, the CM said that some departments had been handed over to Sindh, but a few projects run under those departments are still with the federal government. “We need all the assets of the departments and we will raise this issue in the coming meeting of the Council of Common Interests,” he added. Meanwhile, the provincial government will allocate the budget for all the devolved departments except the Higher Education Commission, which, Shah said, will be handed over soon. On another note, the CM revealed that the repair work on embankments will not wait for the release of funds by the federal government. “Work on all the embankments will be completed by June 15.”
Published in The Express Tribune, June 5th, 2011.
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