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| July 18, 2002 | Thursday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 7, 1423 |
Trainee doctors, nurses await salaries
RAWALPINDI, July 17: The postgraduate trainee doctors and under-training nurses working in the city’s autonomous hospitals have not been paid salaries for the past several months, doctors said here on Wednesday.
Talking to this reporter, the affected doctors said there were 88 postgraduate trainees working in the three major hospitals of the city, none of whom had been paid salaries during the past three months due to certain technical problems concerning the treasury office. The situation has created resentment among the trainees. The doctors said they were facing financial difficulties and were pondering over different options if the authorities did not streamline the system for payment of salaries.
The postgraduate trainee doctors were initially paid Rs4,000, but the Punjab health department recently increased it to Rs6,200. The doctors are yet to get the increased salaries.
The trainee doctors said they formed the backbone of the medical services provided at the autonomous hospitals and at times continuously worked there for three consecutive days.
“Its really disheartening when we are made to face such problems after working tirelessly,” a doctor said.
Dr Arshad Ali, finance director of Rawalpindi autonomous hospitals, told this reporter that funds had been released by the provincial finance department, which had also notified the disbursement. However, he said, the intimation sent to the treasury for payment of salaries went missing.
He said he had been pursuing the case with the treasury since then, but to no avail. Now, he said the treasury had issued a letter stating that they had not received any intimation for the release of salaries.
“Therefore, we have decided to approach the finance department again for the re-issuance of the release intimation to the treasury department,” he added.
Meanwhile, the under-training nurses working at these hospitals have also not received their stipend for over four months.
The nurses said there were around 450 under-training nurses in the three major hospitals of the city — District Headquarters Hospital, Rawalpindi General Hospital and Holy Family Hospital — who had been affected by the delay in the payment of the stipend.
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