Sindh budget:‘Govt did not sanction four-tier formula but it raised salaries’

PMA appreciates raise but says the govt did not keep its promise.

HYDERABAD:

The Sindh budget for 2011-2012 did not sanction the four-tier timescale formula for the promotion of doctors, despite assurances, but a certain percentage of the salaries will be increased.

According to the budget, a grade-17 doctor’s salary is expected to go up by Rs25,000, while the grade-18 doctors will be paid an additional Rs20,000, said Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Sindh general secretary Dr Pir Manzoor Ali. Addressing a press conference on Monday, Dr Ali appreciated the government for increasing their salaries but said it did not keep its promise. “The government announced four months ago that the four-tier formula will be implemented. It had assured that the doctors will be given one-step promotion as well,” he said.

The four-tier timescale formula lays down promotion rules that are based on how long a doctor has been working rather than the current trend of waiting for the decision of the departmental committee for promotion (DPC), which makes its decisions by the number of vacant seats. “At least 11,000 doctors await promotion in Sindh while the provincial finance minister recently announced only 1,500 elevations,” Dr Ali said. Even these proclaimed promotions have not been materialised as yet, he added.

The government is expected to announce over 1,800 new posts of grade-17 doctors once the promotions have been approved. It also needs to fill over 300 grade-17 seats that fell vacant because the serving doctors had resigned.

However, Dr Ali told the press that that “no one was hired after 2001 during which year about 200 doctors were appointed at grade 17 through commission exams.” This has led to a shortage of staff in government hospitals. He gave the example of a trauma centre in Hyderabad whose building was inaugurated in October 2009, but it is still not operational because they do not have enough doctors. When the media drew PMA’s attention to complaints of doctors neglecting their duties and lack of facilities at the government hospitals, the doctors’ association listed a number of measures required to improve the public health sector.

Dr Rafique Qureshi suggested that doctors be taught short courses in hospital administration and public handling because while treating patients, they also have to deal with their attendants. He pointed out that the use of sub-standard medicines which threatens lives is rampant in government hospitals. “The hospital administration and the government need to check this.”

“People should realise the stress the doctors have to bear at work. There is a large number of patients waiting to be attended and a disproportionate number of doctors to treat them,” he maintained.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2011.