LAHORE: Young Doctors’ Association (YDA), Punjab, activists called off their province-wide protest on Thursday after, they said, the government had accepted their major demands, giving them “a historic pay package”.

Health and finance departments issued notifications regarding YDA demands which they had been putting up during their movement spanning over two years. The notifications are about salary, promotion and recruitment.

“It’s really a historic moment for the young doctors of Punjab because this time the government showed sincerity to implement the service structure in its true sense,” YDA senior leader Dr Amir Bandesha told a press conference, organised by senior representatives of the government, at Jinnah Hospital on Thursday.

Health Secretary Jawad Rafique Malik, Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique, Parliamentary Secretary on Health Khawaja Imran Nazir, and Punjab Director General of Health Dr Zahid Pervez were present.

Dr Bandesha said government representatives accepted their major demands in a 10-hour meeting on Wednesday.

“We’ve received notifications by health and finance departments issued against the major demands mentioned in the service structure,” he said.

He said the government had notified the creation of 1,090 new positions for post-graduate trainees (PGTs). Of them, 800 are for unpaid PGTs, working at various teaching hospitals, and 290 at the newly-established tertiary care hospitals in Dera Ghazi Khan, Sahiwal, Sialkot and Gujranwala.

He said the notification would be effective from July 1.

The other notification is about house officers (HOs).

According to the revised policy, the graduates of host medical institutions will be preferred first for paid house job at their respective teaching hospital. After 15 days, the graduates of other public medical institutions will be given paid house job as per availability of seats. After a gap of another seven days, private and foreign graduates will be eligible to get house job provided that the positions are available. The private and foreign graduates with Punjab domicile will be eligible to apply.

“The government has also accepted our one-patient, one-attendant demand and issued a letter to government hospitals to ensure its implementation,” Dr Bandesha said.

Another major initiatives by the Punjab government was the acceptance of promotion related demands, he said.

The department promotion board’s meeting to consider promotion cases from grade 17 to 18 would

be held on April 24, he said. More than 3,000 medical officers and women medical officers will be promoted to grade18 by the end of May. Similarly, the meeting of the board to decide promotions from grade 18 to 19 and from 19 to 20 will be held on July 20.

“The health department has also notified the creation of 10,202 positions in all grades (BS 18 to 20) at government hospitals of the Punjab,” Dr Amir Bandesha said.

These positions would be created within 15 years, he said, adding that of them, 2,600 posts would be created in 2015-16. The positions are being created under a revised formula mentioned in the proposed service structure.

The story does not end here.

“Some demands of the YDA are pending and the health department has agreed to resolve them in 10 days,” Dr Bandesha said.

The yet-to-be decided demands include handsome/lump sum health professional allowance, non-practicing allowance, house rent and conveyance allowance, house rent allowance, free accommodation for PGTs and HOs, and affiliation of MD/MS programme of the Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore with either the King Edward Medical University or the University of Health Sciences.

He said the government had also promised to induct doctors in grade 18, instead of grade 17. He said the YDA was hopeful that the government would be positive towards these demands.

Mr Rafique said that issues had been amicably resolved between the Health Department and the YDA and credit went to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and the chief secretary who gave guidelines and provided funds. He said the Health Department had evolved a timed framework for the promotion of doctors working in grade 17 to 20 and there would be no hurdle in promotions in the next 10 to 15 years.

The health secretary said the cases of doctors awaiting promotion from grade 17 to 18 would be decided in May and dates for the meeting of department promotion committee had been fixed. Similarly, cases regarding the promotion of doctors from grade 19 to 20 would be decided by June.

He added that if ACRs were needed for promotion cases, reporting officers would be called to Lahore for two days for the purpose. He said every specialist doctor posted in tehsil headquarters hospitals would get an additional allowance of about Rs150,000, and those posted in district headquarters hospitals would get Rs100,000 (each) in addition to their salaries.

He said that in order to make basic health units functional, the government was considering a proposal to recruit doctors up to the age of 63 on contract or adhoc basis.

YDA’s Punjab President Dr Ajmal Chaudhry, Dr Usman Maan, and Dr Shabbir Chaudhry were also present.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play