Doctors absent for a year continue to collect salaries in Lyari

Eight doctors have been absent from duty at Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto College in Lyari

KARACHI: As many as eight doctors have been absent from duty for an extensive period, at Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto College in Lyari, despite collecting their salaries regularly. According to the hospital administration, the doctors have been absent from duty for a year and didn't inform the administration of their leave.

The absent doctors, including Dr Shoaib Gungat, Dr Anila Amjad, Dr Rubina Yasir, Dr Shaista Naz, Dr Rana Hussain, Dr Shehla Afshan, Dr Aisha Haq and Dr Mamtobai, continued to collect hundreds of thousands of rupees on account of salaries, despite their prolonged absence.

Six of these doctors are gynaecologists and the gynaecology ward at the hospital has been non-functional for a long period of time due to the continuous absence of doctors, which causes inconvenience for the patients. Moreover, absence of senior doctors like Dr Gungat, who is the professor of surgery, and Dr Mamtobai, who is appointed on the post of senior registrar in the gynaecology ward, further hampers the provision of healthcare at the facility.

Other doctors, working at the hospital, have demanded the authorities take action against the absent doctors.

The medical college's principal, Dr Anjum Rehman, had also sent a request to the health department on March 13, 2019, to take action against the absent doctors, but no progress has been made on this front yet. Pakistan Medical and Dental College has also taken notice of the prolonged absence of doctors from the facility. However, Sindh government and provincial health department have maintained silence over the issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2019.