Health Department rules do not allow a trainee inducted against a paid slot to be deprived of the stipend till the completion of training. PHOTO: FILE
The Post Graduate Medical Institute (PGMI) at the Lahore General Hospital (LGH) has withdrawn stipends of trainees from Iran, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives to accommodate local students allegedly associated with the Young Doctors Association (YDA).
The decision was taken at a Stipend Committee meeting on 11 July, 2013.
The minutes of the stipend committee meeting state, “Foreign PG trainees will cease to get renewals/extensions of stipends from July 1 if Pakistani PG trainees are unpaid in any unit of the hospital.”
After the July 11 meeting, the PGMI principal showed trainees a Health Department letter dated August 30, 2008, stating that foreign students admitted after August 2008 were not entitled to stipends.
LGH Medical Superintendent Amjad Shehzad told The Express Tribune that no foreigner could get a paid position after 2008. He said those who were working on the paid slots were working against vacant seats.
“If seats are available, unpaid PGs are appointed against paid slots but in doing this, preference has to be given now to local students. That’s what we have done,” he said.
Health Department rules do not allow a trainee inducted against a paid slot to be deprived of the stipend till the completion of training.
In mid-May, Ahmad Reza, an Iranian student, had complained to the Iranian embassy, whose officials then contacted the Health Department over the issue.
Health Department Deputy Secretary Nasir Mahmood Shakir then wrote a letter to the medical superintendent of the LGH on May 30, raising objections to the withdrawal of foreign students’ stipends.
“The competent authority has desired that the student may be allowed to avail the stipend as facility once allowed cannot be withdrawn without approval from the competent authority,” the letter states. “You are directed to start grant of stipend to the PGR concerned.”
There are 40 paid foreign students at the Lahore General Hospital (LGH) each getting a Rs42,500 monthly stipend.
The foreign students contend the principal had been paying foreign students admitted between August 30, 2008 and July 11, 2013.
“When we applied for induction, we were told we would get stipends. This is my third year. I have been receiving the stipend and doing 24-hour shifts. Suddenly, I’m told I will no longer get my stipend. I cannot practice privately and have no other way to support myself,” said a PG trainee from Nepal.
“The principal has recently withdrawn stipends of students from other countries and given them to YDA activists,” said another student from Nepal.
“We have been visiting the Health Department and are told no orders have been issued regarding the cancellation of stipends.,” said Dr Zabihullah, a PG trainee from Afghanistan. LGH YDA President Muhammad Ajmal said the YDA had not pressurised anyone to get their members paid slots.
“This is a policy issue. We believe that every PG should be a paid trainee and a policy should be made to give preference to local graduates. There are no rules that state that foreigners can work on paid slots. In fact, they should pay for the training they receive,” he said.
The PG Stipend Committee consists of PGMI Principal Anjum Habib Vohra, Khalid Bashir and Najamul Hasnain Khan.
Talking to The Express Tribune Bashir said he could not comment on the issue. He said the decision had been taken by the principal.
PGMI admissions head Shaikr Mahmood also declined comment.
Vohra is abroad on ex-Pakistan leave.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 19th, 2013.
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