Private hospital staff struggle to make ends meet

“Please do not tip our employees!” The following message printed in bold letters is a familiar sight for any person frequenting a private hospital yet, few stop to ponder why the administration might need to print such explicit instructions in the first place. Perhaps, they are deeply aware that their meagerly paid staff would, out of dire necessity, turn to patients for help, when even after working multiple jobs they would fail to make ends meet.

Shazia Joseph and her husband, who are both nurses at a private clinic, have to work multiple jobs yet are still unable to support their family of four. “Primarily, I work in a hospital, but I also provide medical services to patients at their homes in the evening. This helps me make at least Rs40,000 per month. Even though my husband also works at two different hospitals for 12 hours a day, the rapidly increasing expenses on food and utility bills has still made our survival fairly difficult,” lamented Shazia, who felt that their salaries should be at least Rs10,000 to Rs15,000 more.

Similarly, Waqas, a medical staff member at a private clinic, works as a part-time wound dresser at two other clinics to cushion his household finances. “After working for four hours at each of the three clinics, I am able to make Rs36,000 per month, out of which my monthly expenses are Rs10,000 while the remaining Rs26,000 are utilized for household expenses,” said Waqas.

Like Waqas, Amber, a phlebotomist working at a private laboratory gets paid a measly Rs20,000 per month after drawing blood samples for 8 hours each day. “Rs500 is my per day expenditure on transportation and other basic needs. Therefore, I have to offer my part-time services for the home laboratory collection van, which allows me to earn an extra income of Rs15,000 to Rs18,000 per month after working for 5 hours a day,” shared Amber.

According to Mohammad Imran, trauma in-charge at a private hospital, the medical staff in private hospitals consists of senior staff nurses, nurses, junior nurses, midwifes, ward boys and dressers. “Several big private hospitals, clinics and laboratories do not have a service structure for their medical staff, which is paid varying salaries ranging from Rs20,000 to Rs50,000 based on their experience. Hence, the salaries of medical staff at private health facilities are 40 to 50 per cent lower than the salaries offered to the medical staff at government hospitals. Moreover, the employment of medical staff working in most private hospitals is also not permanent since they are usually recruited on a contract basis,” revealed Imran.

“It is very unfortunate that many private hospitals and clinics do not have a service structure and pay scale for medical staff. Most of these hospitals and clinics are paying less than the monthly government fixed wage of Rs37,000 to their staff. Due to their low salaries, private medical staff is suffering from severe financial difficulties in this era of high inflation,” claimed Javed Mirza, leader of the Medical Staff Union, who demanded the government to implement the service and salary structure in private hospitals and clinics and fix the minimum salary of medical staff at Rs50,000.

Speaking to the Express Tribune on the matter, Ijaz Ali, Member of the Pakistan Nursing and Midwifery Council Sindh said, “There is no service structure for semi para-medical staff including nurses in private hospitals since they fix salaries based on experience and education. In many hospitals, the salary of semi-medical staff is barely Rs35,000 to Rs40,000 even though they are expected to provide their services for 10 hours a day.”