PESHAWAR: Trainee medical officers have staged a sit-in at health secretariat, asking government to approve stipend for them like their regular colleagues.

They said that they had been inducted for Part-II training in hospitals at Rs5,000 per month which was against the rules set forth by College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan.

Dr Nabi Jan Afridi, focal person to health minister on affairs of health department employees, told Dawn that caretaker government had inducted those trainee medical officers (TMOs) in February against Rs5,000 monthly stipend, which had not been given to them so far.

“The TMOs have given undertaking that they are willing to continue training and wouldn’t ask for stipend at par with regular TMOs. We have already sent a summary, which has been returned with some observations. Now we have removed these observations,” he said.

Focal person says summary already sent to finance dept

Mr Afridi said that they strongly recommended to finance department that TMOs were entitled to stipend like their regular colleagues. “In this regard, a meeting between health and finance ministers will take place tomorrow,” he added.

Dr Asfandyar Bittani, the president of Young Doctors Association (YDA), said that the decision regarding TMOs’ induction for Part-II training was taken by caretaker government as the closing date for registration was getting nearer.

He said that caretaker chief minister at that time issued directives that they should be inducted and a summary was approved by cabinet that those TMOs should be given regular pay.

He said that YDA demanded an inquiry through independent party into the case of TMOs as some people in the government were claiming that the summary was fake. The inquiry committee should also reveal names of those people, who committed forgery by putting fake signatures and stamp of the then chief minister on the summary. “The career of about 200 medics is at stake,” he added.

Meanwhile, Provincial Doctors Association (PDA) demanded that the unpaid TMOs should be paid on priority basis as they were working 24/7 without stipend.

PDA president Dr Allauddin said that stipends of TMOs and house officers as well as salaries of medical officers should be increased by at least 30 to 50 per cent.

PDA already termed the notification regarding low stipend to TMOs issued in February ludicrous while YDA appreciated the caretaker government. YDA had argued that there was urgent need for creation of additional slots for FCPS Part-II training in different specialties in Postgraduate Medical Institute.

The finance department had pointed out that as per cabinet’s meeting held on December 11 last year no additional stipendiary slots should be created in future. The cabinet had allowed only 158 additional slots. The meeting had agreed to create additional 480 FCPS Part-II training stipendiary slots that should be either without any stipend or a maximum of Rs5,000 per month after health secretary moved a summary for creation of slots as well as for relaxation of the earlier decision of the cabinet.

The representatives of both PDA and YDA want approval stipend for TMOs as College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan does not allow unpaid training. TMOs work in hospitals round-the-clock and require monetary support to pay for their expenses.

The leaders of Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (Pima) also visited the protesting doctors at health secretariat and assured them of their support. They asked government to accept their demand of stipend and help doctors as well patients in getting quality medical services at government hospitals.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2024