Punjab

More doctors will leave if pay not raised: PMA

"1,800 consultants who are the backbone of our government hospitals will be forced to resign", said PMA officials.

Express October 19, 2010

LAHORE: The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has warned that more doctors will resign from government service and search for jobs abroad if their pay is not raised. PMA officials told a press conference that “the 1,800 consultants who are the backbone of our government hospitals will be forced to resign and leave the country” if they are not given special pay packages, according to a PMA press release.

They said the recent hiring of 2,500 Pakistani doctors by the Saudi government was a clear sign of the provincial and federal governments’ failure to address doctors’ grievances. The PMA officials complained that the government had given a special pay packages to the judiciary but neglected doctors. “They have not been given a pay raise nor a regular service structure. Thousands of doctors have left Pakistan as a result,” they said.

The PMA also demanded that the Punjab government withdraw a ban on the repair of machinery in hospitals, which was recently imposed as an austerity measure to free up funds for flood victims. They threatened protests if the doctors’ demands were not met. PMA office bearers Dr Yasmin Raashid, Dr Tanveer Anwar, Dr Izhar Chaudhry and Dr Salman Kazmi addressed the press conference at PMA House, Lahore.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2010.

COMMENTS (6)

abdul Basit | 14 years ago | Reply Government should not play havoc with doctors and should not create hurdles for higher education as well

Syed Nadir El-Edroos | 14 years ago | Reply We give so much value to killing people, thus justifying massive defence expenditure. But when it comes to nurturing people (teachers) or saving their lives and keeping them healthy (doctors) our value system seems to deem them third best. Why?

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Amna | 14 years ago | Reply I agree the government should firstly offer decent salaris and benefits, and secondly should come up with a way to ensure that doctors stay for at least a set period of time.

Danish Qadimi | 14 years ago | Reply Surely government salaries are not the only reason (or even the most common reason) for doctor flight. When so few doctors work for the government, whether the governmet raises their salaries or not, really should not make a difference to the overall salaries of doctors. Besides most government doctors do private practice anyways. I suspect the real reason here is the income disparity between foriegn markets and Pakistan. Markets such as Saudi and Middle East can afford to pay more for top notch Pakistani doctors, so they go. I really doubt if most doctors can qualify to go to these places. Mr. Amjad Islam is right, if the government invests so much in the making of doctors, then it should have the right to enforce that they stay and serve. But for that it will need to have a plan for using their services (while paying decent wages and facilities) and to prevent their flight before their dues are paid. Is there such a plan?

noman siddiqui | 14 years ago | Reply a big tragedy of our times is that our female students get admissions & then get mbbs degrees only so they can land a better husband.they have no interest or determination to work as doctors after their mbbs.they waste the public's money on getting a better rishta. ladies you don't need an MBBS degree to know how to make aloo gosth. if you're not gonna work,then let some other person get admission & let them atleast contribute to society,not waste their education gotten out of the taxpayer's money. Hats off to any of our female mbbs graduates who go on to practise medicine,get further education rather than spend the rest of their lives just as babyproducing machines.

amjad islam | 14 years ago | Reply the govt. spends millions of the pakistani taxpayers money on educating these medical students out of the nation's tax revenues,then when these free riders become docotors at the public's expense,they run away to foreign lands in the greed of dollars & riyals.the govt should make all medical education private.

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