LAHORE: The Punjab Health Department has referred the cases of 400 medical officers/women medical officers to the departmental promotion committee (DPC) after they showed their willingness to serve in remote areas of the province as consultant. They will also be given an additional incentive package.

Dawn learned the health department has called the DPC meeting on Friday (today) to promote them.

Officials say that for the first time such a large number of FCPS qualified doctors applied in one-go for those positions.

According to official figures, more than 750 posts of consultants have been vacant in district and tehsil headquarters hospitals of Punjab for many years as doctors would proceed abroad instead of serving remote areas.

An official, close to the development, told Dawn the Punjab government had offered the doctors two major carrots – exemption of five-year experience for promotion from BS 17 to 18, and a special incentive package.

The offer worked and distance diminished as one-thirds of the applicants seeking promotion are women doctors.

According to the laid down rules and regulations, five-year experience is mandatory for doctors in BS 17 to get promotion to the next grade.

The official said the chief minister approved the new policy in March to attract ‘specialist doctors/consultants’ to DHQ and THQ hospitals.

Under the new policy, he said, consultants would get Rs40,000 to Rs150,000 in addition to their regular salary package. The Rs150,000 special incentive will be given to the consultant who joins duty in districts like Rajanpur, Mianwali and Bhakkar while the minimum incentive (Rs40,000) will be disbursed among those who join health facilities in Kasur, Narowal and Gujranwala.

The package will be disbursed among the doctors keeping in view the poverty index of the area, period for which the post was vacant and the distance of the health facility from the teaching hospital.

“The department has also offered such doctors that their promotion to BS 19 and 20 were also being streamlined for serving in rural areas without any break,” he said.

UHS results: The University of Health Sciences (UHS) has announced the result of First Professional BDS supplementary examination.

According to a press release issued on Thursday, a total of 286 candidates from 12 affiliated dental colleges appeared in the exam out of which 193 passed and 91 failed. The pass percentage stood at 67.48.

The university also declared the result of postgraduate medical diploma in cardiology part-I (revised scheme) supplementary examination.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2015

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