LAHORE: Doctors working out of Lahore to get better pay
By Intikhab Hanif
LAHORE, May 25: The Punjab government has decided to give lucrative salary packages to doctors to make them serve in cities other than the provincial metropolis.
Another decision is to strengthen tehsil headquarters hospitals so that people can get the required medical cover in their own areas and do not have to go to big cities for the purpose.
These decisions will be implemented by a "Task Force for Health Sector Reforms" constituted by Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi at a meeting here on Tuesday.
The task force would be headed by Health Minister Dr Tahir Ali Javed. Its members would include University of Health Sciences chairman Prof Dr Mehmood Ahmad, stated to be creator of the plan, and Health Secretary Sohail Ahmad. More members would be inducted into the task force later on.
Official sources said that under the plan the government would hire doctors on five-year contracts much more lucrative than those being offered currently. The contracts would be renewable for another five years and those found working satisfactorily would be permanently inducted into service. The career structure of doctors would be based on performance, they said.
Another dimension of the plan is to give a good package of salaries and fringe benefits to the teaching staff of medical colleges in cities other than Lahore so that they do not hesitate to serve there.
They would also be provided with residence and their salaries would be much higher than what the doctors are getting at Lahore medical colleges. This would also discourage the trend among the teaching staff to yearn for postings in Lahore medical colleges, the sources said.
They said the chief minister had asked the authorities concerned to submit a report regarding the facilities that could be offered to the teaching staff to make them serve at the medical college in Sialkot and the proposed one in Gujranwala.
The sources said the plan included provision of all facilities including operations of all kinds at tehsil headquarter hospitals so that people could be prevented from burdening the hospitals in major cities.
Presiding over the meeting, the chief minister said the province had allocated huge funds for strengthening the health sector. He directed the health minister to submit a review report for improving medical education and setting up new colleges in the province.
He said a plan was being made to provide professional training and more incentives to doctors working in the BHUs and the THQ and DHQ hospitals besides focusing on human resource development.
He said revolutionary changes were being made in the standard of health care at district, tehsil and BHU levels. Dr Mehmood Ahmad made various proposals for improving health care while the health minister informed the chief minister about the measures taken to streamline the system.
