The PMA general body, at a meeting in Lahore on Wednesday, passed a resolution demanding that the provincial government make a special pay package for doctors and announce it within six weeks.
The resolution said that house officers should get Rs30,000 per month; medical officers and post-graduate researchers Rs80,000; senior registrars and senior medical officers Rs150,000; additional principal medical officers and assistant professors Rs200,000; associate professors Rs250,000; and professors should get Rs400,000 per month. Grade 18 specialists should be paid Rs150,000, grade 19 specialists Rs200,000, and grade 20 specialists Rs250,000 per month, said to the resolution.
The PMA passed several other resolutions at the meeting, confirmed the association’s office bearers in Lahore for next year and approved audits for the last two years.
One resolution urged the government to fully implement the Punjab Healthcare Commission Act of 2009, which allows for the establishment of a body to regulate doctors and hospitals. This commission has not been set up yet. Another resolution urged the government to raise the health budget.
Dr Yasmeen Rashid, former president of the PMA, said that the association had also passed one resolution “as a warning” to Health Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad to be more polite with doctors.
She said that the PMA had received numerous complaints about Fawad’s attitude towards medical professionals. “He should keep in mind that he is secretary of the department that deals exclusively with the doctors’ community,” she said.
The association approved a notification, issued on December 21, of their office-bearers for next year, all of whom were elected unopposed. According to the notification, Dr Tanveer Anwer will serve as president, Dr Yasmin Ehsan as lady vice president, Dr Ehsanur Rehman as vice president, Dr Izhar Chaudhry as general secretary, Dr Kamran Saeed Sheikh as finance secretary, Dr Sabahat Habib as lady joint secretary, and Dr Salman Kazmi as joint secretary of the PMA Lahore for 2011-2012.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 30th, 2010.
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