December 15, 2002	Sunday	Shawwal 10, 1423

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PESHAWAR, Dec 14: Long duty hours have been badly affecting the performance of house job doctors and trainee medical officers at the city hospitals, because they remain in the wards for most of the time when their seniors come and go at their will, interviews with doctors revealed on Friday.

“We perform harsh duties at the wards and operation theatres for painfully long hours without taking rest. Sometimes, we remain in the ward for 48 hours at a stretch but there is no reward,” said an house officer at the Khyber Teaching Hospital.

According to him, the senior doctors have been earning huge amount from the institution-based practice (IBP) or their private clinics and do not pay any attention to the patients at the OPDs and wards.

The entire burden of patients is borne by the house job doctors, he said.

The medical graduates undergo rigorous one year six months compulsory training in two different units at district level or tertiary care hospitals. Every ward has at least eight to 12 house officers, with each of them had to look after about eight patients. They take the history of the newly-admitted patients, fill their investigation forms for them, record temperature and blood pressure, etc., and present the daily progress report of their respective patients to the consultants, who prescribe them treatment.

On emergency day of the ward, house officers are in hot waters. Much to their chagrin, they pass sleepless nights and remain present at their duty place the next day also. Most of them said they had thought that they would enjoy the one-year house job after five years of hard study schedule at the medical colleges, but the house job has become an albatross around their necks.

Apart from problems at the hospital, they also face embarrassment at the hostels. Each of the hospitals have got bachelors’ hostels, which the house officers argue had been occupied by the senior doctors.

“Some of the doctors, who do not qualify for room allotment at the hostel, have got two rooms. Similarly, the senior doctors working on the administrative posts of these hospitals, have also occupied rooms despite having got residential quarters,” said a house job doctor at the Lady Reading Hospital. The monthly stipend given to them fell too short of meeting their expenses.

“More often, we demand money from our parents. We have already spent the hard-earned money of our parents, who all aren’t rich. Our stipend should be at par with the BS-17,” said a house officer, adding that the stipend of house officer was raised in the last budget from Rs4,880 to Rs6,210, but the resignations of the senior consultants against the institution-based practice had not only affected their training but workload had also increased manifolds.