Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Off The Record - 17th April 2012
Doctors’ strike: YDA wants more
Sensing the government’s willingness to negotiate, the Young Doctors Association (YDA) wants it to do more than just withdraw transfer orders of more than 400 doctors.
The government’s efforts to appease the doctors included withdrawal, on Tuesday, of a harassment FIR registered by a Gujrat hospital medical superintendant (MS) against two Gujrat YDA office bearers. The settlement between the MS and the doctors was negotiated by the district coordination officer.
No meeting took place between the Health Department and the association on Tuesday. Representatives from both parties had met late on Monday night but without any results.
A senior Health Department official, who was part of the negotiations, told The Express Tribune that the department had been ready to withdraw the transfer orders. However, he said, the YDA representatives had said that they also wanted the government to reorganise the service structure. That, according to the official, will take at least a year “and they want us to do it in a few days”. The official would not say by when the government hoped to persuade the doctors to call off the strike. “We are trying to resolve the issue,” he said.
Dr Khuzema Arslan Bohkari, a member of YDA-Punjab, told The Tribune that the officials had told them that discussing the service structure was not part of their mandate. “We made it clear from the beginning that we were not just opposed to the transfers but also wanted the service structure to be reorganised,” she said.
Bokhari said that the government had promised a new service structure, in 2011, after a 37-day strike by the doctors “but nothing has been done so far”. “We are only demanding that the health secretary or another relevant official announce that a new service structure will be devised within days, not months,” the YDA-Punjab members said. Bokhari said the official had told them restructuring would take a year. “Our strike won’t be called off till then,” she said.
Out-Patient Departments (OPDs), meanwhile, remained closed across the province on Tuesday. Patients and their families who had come to Lahore from other cities condemned the strike. “The doctors aren’t even attending to patients who have come from far-flung areas,” said Mohammad Ishaq, who had come to Mayo Hospital from Sialkot.
Doctors on duty at emergencies complained about being overburdened. “A lot of OPD patients are coming to us. It’s really difficult to attend to them in addition to those in need of emergency care. There is no extra staff here,” a doctor at the Mayo Hospital Emergency said.
While YDA spokesperson Dr Nasir Bokhari claimed that young doctors were helping out in emergency wards, senior professors denied this. “There isn’t anybody from YDA to help us out,” a senior doctor at Services Hospital said.
FIR withdrawn in Gujrat
Two Gujrat YDA office bearers were released from police custody and an FIR against them and five others – including the YDA Punjab president Hamid Butt – was withdrawn following a settlement negotiated by the district coordination officer.
The Gujrat chapter boycotted work on Tuesday morning following an argument with Aziz Bhatti Hospital Medical Superintendent (MS) Tahir Naveed over the arrests of YDA’s Gujrat president Saud Afzal and vice president Shiraz Malik.
Punjab president Butt was among those who staged a sit-in in front of Dr Naveed’s office and refused to let him leave until the two doctors were released. The sit-in ended when the DCO assured the demonstrators that the two doctors would be released.
Dr Naveed had earlier told police that Afzal, Malik and some others had been giving him death threats over the transfer of two paramedics from one ward of the hospital to another. In the FIR, he had said, that the suspects had broken into and vandalised his office on Monday. According to the complaint, Butt had called the MS on his cell phone and asked him to suspend the transfer orders of the paramedics.
The paramedics, said Dr Naveed, had been transferred on Friday from a medical ward to an eye ward after they were accused of stealing medicines. They had denied the allegations.
DCO Nawazish Ali told The Express Tribune that the FIR had been taken back “in the interest of the patients”. Dr Naveed said he had forgiven the doctors.
-WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING FROM SHAHID MUNEER IN GUJRANWALA
Published in The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2012.
Young doctors strike enters seventh day
On the call of the Young Doctors Association (YDA), Punjab, young doctors continued complete strike for the seventh consecutive day in all teaching hospitals to protest against the Punjab Health Department's decision to transfer ad hoc postgraduate trainees and post newly-selected medical officers by the Punjab Public Service Commission primarily in teaching hospitals of Lahore.
In Lahore, their strike at the outdoor departments of all teaching hospitals entered the seventh consecutive day, which caused immense hardships for patients and their attendants.
However, patients, requiring outdoor treatment, voluntarily stopped visiting hospitals in as many numbers as in routine days in anticipation for the unavailability of healthcare services to patients.
On Tuesday, the outdoor as well as indoor departments wore a deserted look, as the doctors stayed away from their duties.
As a result, hundreds of thousands of the patients were left unattended.
Doctors posted in emergency wards said that though the number of patients, requiring outdoor services, had significantly dropped due to the closure of outdoor services in hospitals, yet the load of patients increased in emergency wards. Besides, patients also had to face a lot of difficulties besides bearing the ordeal of long wait to get treatment in emergency wards.
The emergency departments witnessed extraordinary number of the patients, as many preferred to seek treatment there because the outdoor departments were shut down for last five days.
The patients strongly criticized the doctors for denial of cheap medical treatment facilities, as they could not afford the expensive treatment at the private hospitals.
They demanded a stern action against the doctors for their apathetic behavior towards the poor masses.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Higher salaries for capital doctors
The capital`s young doctors working in public hospitals will get significantly higher salaries and a new service structure from July 1 this year, two demands for which they went on strike last month.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Monday approved a summary on a new career path for health professionals, with young doctors joining the government service in grade 9 – equivalent to BPS-18 – with minimum salary package of Rs75,000 per month.
“The professional career structure for doctors will now have grades 1-13. Young doctors will be inducted in grade 9 and get around Rs75,000 per month,” Nargis Sethi, secretary health, told Dawn .
Doctors currently join the federal government hospitals in BPS-17 with a starting salary of around Rs25,000 to Rs30,000 per month.
For almost a month, Young Doctors Association`s strike brought the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) and Polyclinic to a standstill. Demanding better service structure and higher salaries, young doctors` strike in March created immense difficulties for patients.
Under the new package, paramedics, nurses, and pharmacists have been placed in grades 1-7. Similarly senior doctors in grade 13 – equivalent to BPS-22 – would get around Rs200,000 or more per month.
Ms Sethi said Prime Minister Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari had discussed the young doctors` demands and concerns. “PM Gilani has approved the health ministry`s summary.”
She said under the summary approved by the prime minister, the doctors and other health professionals would have a separate service structure. “The decision will come into effect from July 1.”
But she also added that the financial impact of the decision was being discussed by the finance, establishment, and health secretaries.
The secretary added that with the approval of the summary, around 100 or more doctors would be inducted at the federal level.
“Now doctors will get promotion on merit and the best of them will serve in grade 13, which is equivalent to BPS-22.”
She said the Pay and Pension Commission of the federal government had endorsed the government`s decision for streamlining the “highly regarded profession of doctors”.
A senior Pims doctor, requesting anonymity, termed the government move a landmark decision for medical profession. He asked the provincial governments to follow the federal initiative to resolve the concerns of doctors.
YDA members at Pims and Polyclinic also lauded the government decision.
“With contractual doctors getting regular jobs and several of our senior doctors moving to a next grade is a great move” said Dr Owais Nizami, a key member of YDA.
The prime minister on Monday told the National Assembly that the `medical practitioners` working on contract will be regularised.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Relief and expectations as doctors return
The parking lot was full at the Services Hospital Hostel, Lahore on Friday, as doctors rushed off to duty after 37 days of strike.
In Medical Unit 4, Dr Mujahid Israr, a post-graduate trainee in internal medicine was glad to be back with his patients and nursing staff
“When I reached my ward this morning, I was overwhelmed when one of my patients, who is diabetic and suffering from lung infection, got me flowers,” said Israr.
The calling off of the strike was a source of joy amongst his colleagues, said Israr, adding they were now more motivated to work. “The main issue for young doctors was the low salary packages and the major brain drain that was taking place,” explained YDA Punjab president Usman Dar.
“We were compelled to come on the roads for our demands,” he said.”Look at the lawyers’ movement or the PIA or KESC workers – this the only way the government listens,” he added.
The biggest thing the movement brought is dignity, he said.
“The prestige of being a doctor is finally being realised and doctors are now hoping for better health infrastructure,” he added,
For patients, the end of the strike has brought relief. Farooq Hussain, whose father was admitted at the Services Hospital with a broken hip, said the doctors were now providing extra care to his father.
Some patients also appeared sensitive to the doctors’ cause. Muhammed Ali Butt, whose father was admitted into Punjab Instituite of Cardiology, said “The [doctors] have the right, but we also need people to sacrifice and work for the greater good,” said Butt, adding that the government should have resolved the situation earlier.
At Ganga Ram, assistant professor of sugery Feroke Zara expressed hope that the committee constituted by Punjab chief minister will work towards resolving the issue for good.”This should be settled because we know that an adhoc solution will never work,” Zara added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 9th, 2011.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Punjab doctors call off 37-day strike
The Punjab chapter of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) finally called off its strike on Thursday after a 37-day long agitation as a ‘goodwill gesture’ to coincide with the World Health Day. After the announcement junior doctors started resuming their duties at public sector hospitals of the province.
The drop scene of the longest-ever strike of doctors in the country came after a 17-minute long meeting between Shahbaz Sharif and four YDA leaders at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, where the latter announced calling off the strike.
Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa, the chief minister’s senior adviser, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and Senator Pervaiz Rashid were also present on the occasion. The YDA was represented by its president and secretary general.
Sources said the breakthrough was made late on Wednesday at a meeting between the YDA leaders Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah.
The minister argued that the closure of emergency departments of public hospitals on the Health Day would bring a bad name to the country. As a result, a majority of doctors resumed their duties on Thursday morning.
The law minister assured the doctors the government was ready to accept their demands for a pay raise.
Rana Sanaullah also informed the YDA leaders that the Punjab Health Department had been directed to reinstate all sacked young doctors and to withdraw notices issued to agitators.
The ban on the entry of protesting doctors in public sector health institutions of the province would also be lifted, the YDA was assured.
“The young doctors have restored all critical care departments of the state-run health facilities, including emergency and ICU-CCU,” Rana Sanaullah told Dawn.
He said all the young doctors, including YDA office-bearers whose services had been terminated by the department during the strike, would be reinstated immediately.
The law minister said the YDA had called off its strike unconditionally.
The association’s office-bearers told the media at Services Hospital that the chief minister had accepted their demands and assured them that the salary issue would be resolved on a priority basis.
YDA’s Punjab president Dr Hamid Butt said all the critical care departments of the public hospitals, including OPDs, had been made functional after most doctors returned to work on Thursday.
He said the chief minister had set up a six-member committee, comprising Sirdar Zulfiqar Khosa, Pervaiz Rasheed and Rana Sanaullah from the government side, and YDA office-bearers Dr Haroon, Dr Abbacy Gondola and Dr Nair, to prepare recommendations regarding the special pay package and submit a report within 15 days.
Hospital sources confirmed the critical care departments functioned fully on Thursday. The attendance of doctors was almost 80 per cent.
YDA Punjab ends 37-day long strike
Meanwhile, CM Punjab constituted a six-member committee to look into the demands of the YDA, which would be comprised of Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan and Senior Advisor to Punjab CM Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa and three members of young doctors.
The committee would present a report to CM in one week.
The CM Punjab ensured doctors to solve their just problems and ensured that their salaries would be raised in the next budget.
A six-member delegation comprising young doctors called on Shahbaz Sharif at the CM House and an hour-long dialogue were culminated at success.
Later, YDA Punjab announced to end their 37-day long strike.
Mian Shahbaz Sharif said that the salaries of young doctors would be increased in next budget.
Talking to media persons Rana sanaullah khan said that the responsibility of the deaths of patients during the strike equally lies upon government, media and doctors.
He said that the families of the deceased patients would be compensated over loss of lives.
Talking to media, Dr Haroon said that the dialogue with chief minister and his team were held amid a very positive atmosphere, adding that the CM has ensured doctors to solve their just problems.
He further said that Shahbaz Sharif also ensured to meet at anytime and any place to solve their problems.