Doctors’ representatives have indicated that they will end the strike at public hospitals in the city if the government immediately takes three steps – give all doctors a one-scale promotion, raise the non-practising allowance and raise the salaries of postgraduate trainees to the level of medical officers. The measures would cost the government almost Rs6 billion this year.
The outpatient departments at public hospitals in Lahore remained closed for a third day on Wednesday on the call of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) Punjab, which is seeking a host of changes to the service structure for doctors employed by the Health Department. A senior doctor at Mayo Hospital said the closure of OPDs had resulted in an extra burden on emergency wards.
Representatives from the doctors and the government met at the Civil Secretariat on Wednesday to discuss how much it would cost to agree to the doctors’ demands on a revised service structure (see box). While the Health Department had said earlier that these would cost Rs94 billion, the meeting agreed that they would cost about a third of that, or Rs32 billion.
“The doctors proposed that the government immediately release a package of almost Rs6 billion to end the strike,” said a participant in the meeting from the government side. He said that these demands were for a one-scale promotion and increases in the non-practising allowance and salaries of postgraduate trainees. The doctors would want their other demands fulfilled in phases over the next five years. He said the government was considering the demands.
Dr Mudassir Razzaq Khan, who represented the YDA in the talks, said that the two sides had calculated that all the changes proposed by the doctors would cost about Rs32 billion. The one-scale promotions would cost Rs1 billion. Raising the allowance for doctors working in risk areas like forensics would also cost Rs1 billion, while raising the health professional allowance would cost Rs5.8 billion.
Dr Khan said that their demands were not just about money. “Seventy per cent of the proposals are for things which would not cost any money. For example, when doctors want to get approval for a period of leave, they should be able to get it from the hospital’s medical superintendent or the head of the institution rather than having to go to the Secretariat,” he said.
Dr Khan said that the YDA was wary of the government’s promises.
“We need a guarantee in the form of a notification that the government will meet the demands in phases if it cannot do them all together due to financial constraints,” he said.
Dr Izhar Chaudhry, who represented the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) at the talks, said that the government appeared to be taking the negotiations seriously and hoped that they would be successful soon. Deputy Finance Secretary Sarfaraz Ahmad led the negotiations from the government side.
Doctors’ demands for service structure
Time scale promotions, House rent allowance, health professional allowance, risk allowance and hard area allowance should be equal to running basic pay.
Medical and conveyance allowance should be 30 per cent of basic pay.
The stipend for postgraduate trainees should be equal to the take-home salary of medical officers and the stipends for house officers should be half that Medical officers who qualify as Fellows of the College of Physicians and Surgeons should get promotions as senior registrars.
Interest-free loans for doctors.
Published In The Express Tribune, June 21st, 2012.
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