Welcome to the club: Shaikh Zayed Hospital doctors upset at pay cut

Government says there will be no ‘decision’ till June.

LAHORE:

The Punjab government has slashed the salaries of doctors of Shaikh Zayed Hospital (SZH) by up to 50 percent.  The government says that there will be no further review of salaries until June. Patients, however, have yet to receive any relief after the transfer of the hospital from the federal to the provincial government.

A medical officer (MO) at SZH made Rs80,000 under the federal government. This month the MOs received Rs42,000. The MOs in all public hospitals of Punjab get the same salary.

“What can we do to protect our rights other than protesting? They have told us to wait till June and then they will ‘decide’ something about us. We have no clue as to what that will be,” said a doctor employed as an assistant professor at SZH. He said his salary had been slashed by 45 per cent. “This was the first salary we drew from the Punjab government. It was a bomb shell.”

“The government has double standards. It has reduced our salaries but the parchee fee (registration fee) and treatment charges have not been revised. The registration fee at SZH still starts at Rs50 and there are charges for all tests. If medical charges are not being abolished then why have the salaries been slashed?” said another SZH doctor.

The registration at all public hospitals is free. So is parking.

A senior SZH doctor said that the government had slashed the salaries of doctors without issuing any notification.

“Everyday there are letters written to the SZH administration. Everyday we respond to them. No notification has been sent regarding our salaries.”

“The government is violating the constitution. … Rights of all employees transferred from the federal to the provincial government are protected,” said a doctor who works as an associate professor at SZH.

Pakistan Medical Association’s (PMA) Punjab President Dr Ashraf Nizami said the PMA would support SZH doctors on their salaries. “PMA has always opposed the idea of running the SZH and the Punjab Institute of Cardiology on a private model.

But, if the charges are the same at SZH then what’s the use of its transfer to Punjab government. If they don’t have funds then they should have waited till June,” he said. Dr Nizami said the Punjab government should seek ‘bridge finance’ to meet the hospitals expenditures and provide free medical treatment.

Young Doctors Association (YDA) General Secretary Dr Salman Kazmi said SZH should be run as other public hospitals in the province are.

Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique told The Express Tribune that SZH was different. “The federal government owes us billions of rupees. SZH used to meet its own expenses.” He said the chief minister had formed a committee under Senator Ishaq Dar to settle the matter.

“For now the government has decided to let the hospital run the way it is. We will establish the requirement for funds and take all the decisions in June,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2012.