Service matters: Young doctors persuaded to hold off protest

Health Department given four weeks to make good its promises.

LAHORE:

Just as the Young Doctors Association (YDA) was preparing for a sit-in on Tuesday, the government reached out and assured them that their demands [service structure, post graduate training, etc] will be met in four weeks. The protest has been called off till then.

On Tuesday, the YDA called for a demonstration on Jail Road. Adviser to Chief Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique, Health Secretary Babar Tarar and Health Director General Dr Zaid Pervaiz visited the Services Institutes of Medical Sciences before the doctors began the demonstration and convinced them not to hold it. The YDA’s leaders asked the government to meet their demands within four weeks or the protest would be launched. Rafique told them that the government was in the process of implementing the service structure. He said the notification of all doctors who had been promoted from BS-17 to BS-18 would be issued in two weeks. Tarar said those who had been recruited by the Punjab Public Service Commission would be allowed post graduate training. He said the doctors who had not joined duties upon selection would be given another chance to join duties after a hearing. He said those having house jobs in government hospitals would not be fired, however the preference for house jobs will be given to graduates of public medical colleges.

YDA President Dr Javaid Aheer said the YDA would wait for four weeks and if the demands were not met till then, they would devise a strategy to hold protests across the province.

EDOs to be responsible for department’s performance

“We need a strict monitoring policy to improve and strengthen healthcare in Punjab. Doctors and access to essential drugs should be ensured for people in remote areas,” Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique said at a meeting to discuss reforms in the primary healthcare system on Tuesday.

Health Secretary Babar Hayat Tarar, Health DG Dr Zahid Pervaiz, Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illnesses Additional DG Dr Tanvir Ahmed, Mother Neonatal and Child Health Director Dr Zafar Ikram, EPI Health Director Dr Munir Ahmed and Lady Health Worker Programme Director Dr Javed Omer also attended the meeting. Health Sector Reforms Programme Director Dr Akhtar Rasheed Malik gave a presentation on the primary healthcare system.

Rafique told Tarar to direct executive district officers, district officers and deputy district officers to monitor hospitals and health centres in each district.

They will be held responsible for their subordinates’ performance. At provincial level, the Health secretary and director general will monitor the performance of Health EDOs. He said a fair system of rewards and punishments could improve overall performance.

Rafique said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had a clear cut policy on the subject – there would be no compromise in providing the best possible healthcare to people. He said the Health Department had constituted a search committee to post Health EDOs in districts and medical superintendents at public hospitals. He said the committee was performing well.

He said only professionals who truly believed in serving the masses would be posted to these posts. “There is no room for lazy officers.”He said the procurement of medicines in districts should also be strictly monitored.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2014.