PIMS cardiac centre: Doctors over fret yet another contract extension

Demand regularisation of jobs as hospital sends summary to health ministry for extension

ISLAMABAD: At least nine doctors at the cardiac centre of the largest tertiary care hospital in the federal capital find themselves in the depths of uncertainty yet again their contracts have expired and the health ministry has been requested to extend them.

The doctors, though, want that the government to regularise them, without being subject to clearing any exam, since they have been working at the centre for well over a decade now.

Apart from 31 technical and non-technical staff, nine were appointed at the cardiac centre of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) in 2005 when the centre was being built. These included Professor Dr Faridullah Nakka in basic pay scale (BPS) grade 20 and Dr Akhtar Ali in BPS-18. Others included Dr Mahrukh Zahoor, Dr Muhammad Rafiq, Dr Muhammad Faisal, Dr Javed Iqbal in BPS-17 and charge nurses Aqleema Manan, Fauzia Jabeen and Sabiha Aslam in BPS-16.



They were appointed on contracts which were to last until the construction of the centre was complete, at which point the government aimed to hire regular staff.

The construction of the centre was supposed to have been completed by 2008, but it dragged on for a further nine years until March 2015.

Once it was completed, the contracts of the doctors and the staff ended. However, the hospital and the government failed to hire permanent staff for the centre.

The hospital’s administration, though, recommended that the doctors and the technical staff continue their services and promised to adjust them in the centre.

The staff, thus, continued working at the centre but the government stopped paying them from July 2015.

While all technical and non-technical staff, appointed in BPS- 1 to BPS-15 were regularised, the doctors appointed in BPS- 17 to BPS-20 were not. The doctors eventually moved the courts in a bid to force the government to make their services permanent. After passing through the lower courts, the matter finally landed in the Supreme Court.

After they had worked in the centre without any pay or contract for nearly three years, the top court last year directed the now-defunct Ministry for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) to release the accrued salaries for the past 33 months to the staff.

The court further directed the CADD ministry to extend the service terms of the doctors from July 2015, to December 2018, or until regular, permanent employees are hired at the cardiac centre.

Sources say that the cardiac centre has been unable to make any appointments since the court order. With the extended contracts of the doctors having expired on the last day of 2018, the hospital administration has dispatched a summary to the health ministry to extend the contract of the doctors.

Professor Dr Nakka said that he has been working at the facility on contract since 2006.

“Last year, our service contracts were extended until December 31, 2018, or until the appointment of the permanent doctors,” he said, adding that the court had further advised the authorities to fill up the posts by appointing them through the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC).

In turn, some of the posts were advertised and written examination for prospective candidates was held in August 2018.

Some of the candidates who gave the exams were doctors who are already serving at the centre on a contractual basis.

But nearly six months on from the tests, the interview part of the recruitment process has yet to commence. This has prompted the hospital administration to send a summary to the health ministry to extend the contract of doctors.

Dr Faisal said that they have been working at the facility for the past 14 years, including around three years without any pay.



He contended that it was unjust that they have to appear for examinations to qualify for the same posts again.

“The government has regularised all the staff who were hired between BPS-1 to BPS-15, then why are we not being regularised?” he asked, as he went on to complain that they are no longer eligible to get another government job elsewhere.

“We have been running this centre for the past 14 years, including three years without pay. Every year, we hold over 400 open-heart surgeries and heart bypass operations apart from handling several cases of angiography, angioplasty, echo and Exercise Tolerance Test (ETT),” he explained, adding, “It would be unjust to subject us to a whole new [recruitment] process of examination after 14 years of services.”

The doctors demanded that the government regularise them.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2019.