06 June 2004	Sunday	17 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

KARACHI, June 5: The College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan has stated that FCPS-II trainees in Sindh were being deprived of their mandatory stipend equivalent to BPS-17.

In a press statement issued here on Saturday, CPSP president Prof Sultan Farooqui referred that all provincial governments except Sindh had already implemented mandatory payment of stipend to every FCPS-II trainee.

He deplored that despite governor's approval in consultation with health and finance departments, the decision had not been implemented in the province so far. This, he added, had been perturbing the FCPS-II trainees working in public sector hospitals.

"FCPS-II trainees are service providers and backbone of the tertiary care hospitals. They are qualified MBBS having completed house job training period and FCPS Part-I qualified, undergoing four to five years specialists training and working on full-time basis," he said.

All over the world, he said, postgraduate trainees were paid reasonable stipend to cater their financial needs so that they could concentrate on their studies and training, besides, rendering better health care services.

The CPSP president refuted allegations of charging exorbitant fees from FCPS trainees causing problems for trainees. Giving facts about the fellowship fee, he said that the CPSP fellowship in medicine and allied discipline came to Rs55,500 and in surgical and allied discipline was Rs64,000 that included examination, registration, workshops and assessment of dissertation fees.

"The fee structure of examination has been static (unchanged) for the last four years in spite of crippling inflation and high cost of electricity, rising cost of petroleum, essential commodities, utilities and transportation," he said.

Besides, he said that Qarz-i-Hasana from the CPSP Trust was provided to the FCPS candidates, who were in financial need to cater monitory requirement for training programme such as workshop and dissertation fees.

Prof Sultan Farooqi mentioned that newly established medical college in Punjab and Sindh in public and private sectors were charging only tuition fee amounting to Rs300,000 per annum, which came to Rs1.5 million in five years for undergraduate MBBS degree only.

"Similarly, for postgraduate programme offered by the University of Karachi, the total cost came to Rs118,950 whereas MD/MS of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro, cost Rs75,200 for the whole programme," he added.

He said that the CPSP generated its own resources without resorting to any aid from government or any other donor agencies. Despite all these financial constraints, he said that 13 well-equipped regional centres had been established in major cities of Pakistan. - PPI