KARACHI: Trainee doctors demand payment of stipend
KARACHI, Nov 5: More than 270 postgraduate trainee doctors of Sindh are waiting for payment of the stipend equivalent to BPS-17 (Rs6,210), which the Sindh government had earlier agreed, in principle, to pay to the postgraduate medical trainees (FCPS-II) of the provincial government hospitals.
The delay in implementation of the decision, taken at a meeting chaired by the governor on May 2, 2003, is creating unrest among the trainee doctors who are working in the Civil Hospital, Karachi; Chandka Medical College, Larkana; Peoples’ Medical College, Nawabshah; Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro; and other provincial government-run hospitals without any stipend, whereas their counterparts in other provinces are already getting the similar stipend.
“We are facing economic hardships as after spending many years in MBBS, we are supposed to earn for support of our families,” a doctor said. He said that due to non-payment of the stipend to postgraduate trainers, many MBBS doctors were discouraged to take admission in the postgraduate course.
According to sources in the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP), there are about 1,500 trainee doctors in Sindh, out of whom 53 are absorbed.
The CPSP has already suspended the units of gynae and obstetrician in Peoples’ Medical College, Nawabshah; Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro; Civil Hospital, Karachi; and Lyari General Hospital due to non- payment of stipend to the trainees.
The Punjab, NWFP and Balochistan governments have already sanctioned the stipend to FCPS-II trainers equivalent to BPS-17, (i.s. Rs6210 to each trainee). Even, the city district government of Karachi has also decided to pay the stipend to the postgraduate trainee doctors, working in the hospitals run by the city government.
According to official sources, during the meeting on May 2, 2003, with a delegation of CPSP, the governor had approved the proposal of CPSP President Prof Sultan Farooqui that Sindh government-run hospitals should also pay the stipend to the trainee postgraduate doctors.In the meeting, the governor had ordered the provincial health department to formulate the modalities and Terms of Reference (ToR) on the subject with the consultation of finance and law departments.
The CPSP President, Prof Dr M. Sultan Farooqui, pointed out that there were already 260 sanctioned posts of House Officers, lying vacant in provincial government hospitals, which required merely change of status for the designated posts into the postgraduate training slots.
The provincial secretary for health had proposed to the finance department that the seats of these House Officers should be converted for postgraduate private students and each student should be given Rs6,210 as stipend.
He said that the number of these House Officers could be increased to 555, which would be available in the following colleges and hospitals: 150 seats at Civil Hospital, Karachi; 301 at LUMHS; 36 at Chandka Medical College, Larkana; 60 at Peoples’ Medical College, Nawabshah; and eight at Sindh Government Qatar Hospital, Orangi Town.
For this purpose, the finance department has been asked to create 555 seats of postgraduate private students and an amount of Rs3.45 million would be required annually. —APP
