October 22, 2008	Wednesday	Shawwal 22, 1429

KARACHI, Oct 21: A number of house officers working at the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) and the Lyari General Hospital, which are run by the Sindh government, continued their protest on Tuesday to put pressure on the government for a raise in their monthly stipends.Expressing concern over the government’s failure to address their grievances, some of the under-training medicos blamed the officialdom for a delay in the issuance of a government notification regarding the increase in their stipends.

Taking notice of the protest campaign launched by the house officers who were demanding a hundred per cent increase in their stipends, the then health minister of the province said about a year ago that the government was willing to enhance the honorarium paid to the house officers in Sindh government hospitals and a necessary notification would be issued soon.

“But nothing happened afterwards,” recalled a trainee doctor, adding that their counterparts in Punjab had been receiving the enhanced stipends for the last one year, but here red tape appeared to be the main obstacle in the acceptance of their demand for an increase in stipends.

The protesting doctors who had gathered outside the office of the medical superintendent of CHK said that the government should consider their case and order enhanced stipends at the earliest; otherwise they would be compelled to observe a complete strike from November 1, at CHK, LGH and the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases where about 300 house officers are discharging their duties.

“At present we are observing a two-hour token strike from 10am to noon every day for the acceptance of our demands, and our strike does not affect patients in all wards of the CHK,” said a leader of the protesting doctors.

He said that they were left with no choice as the government was not allowing any increase in the stipend amount which was not more than what was being paid to sweepers and watch and ward staffers.

It was further claimed that doctors who had been engaged as house officers by the Sindh government from August 1 were paid the stipend only once. The amount of the stipend was Rs6,200, informed another doctor.

The house officer further said that they on Tuesday presented their case to the MS of CHK, who, according to him, had promised to forward their cases to the Sindh health department at the earliest.

In the meantime, Sindh health minister Dr Sagheer Ahmad told Dawn that he too personally was in favour of increasing the stipends of the doctors and said that he was already working on that.

He said he was concerned about the plight of new medicos and postgraduate doctors as far as an improved honorarium payment was concerned.

A file on the subject was already in the finance department which contains observations and proposals in the context of financial implications, if the stipends were increased, the minister added.

According to the minister both the under-training doctors and postgraduate doctors deserved significant increases in the payments.

The stipend for the house officers, who are required to serve in a hospital for 10-12 months as part of their training, was last increased from Rs3,880 to Rs6,210 some five years ago.

The federal government had already allowed an increase in stipends of house job officers and postgraduate trainees working in federal government hospitals up to Rs12,000 and Rs15,000 per month, respectively, effective from January 2007.

The Karachi chapter of the Pakistan Medical Association is of the view that a discrepancy is prevailing in the case of new doctors in Sindh.

The postgraduates in Punjab also get an increment of Rs1,000 per year and non-practicing allowance of Rs4,000 per month for grade 17, it claimed in a statement.Professor Javed Alam, the chairman of the house job committee, Civil Hospital Karachi, said policymakers should move in right direction on the issue as the financial incentives and improved working condition plays a significant role in enhancing efficiency of medicos.