ISLAMABAD: Employees of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) have decided to use all the possible options, including agitation and going to court, to resist the government’s efforts to turn the hospital into a medical teaching institution (MTI).

At a meeting of all the employees’ representative bodies, staff said they believed turning the hospital into an MTI would deprive them of their rights and status as civil servants.

Young Consultants Association of Pakistan Chairman Dr Asfandyar Khan said the prime minister has approved the MTI legislation, and the Cabinet Division has circulated the draft to have it approved by cabinet ministers as well, after which it will be sent to the president to be issued as an ordinance.

He said a committee of employees met with then special assistant to the prime minister Dr Zafar Mirza, former health secretary Allah Baksh Malik and Islamabad MNA Ali Awan. At the meeting, they decided that employees’ rights as civil servants would remain intact, but this is not reflected in the draft.

“Moreover, it was decided that employees who do not opt for the MTI will remain permanent employees of the hospital, but now it is being said that they will be considered deputationists. Moreover, the new draft status that those who do not opt for the MTI will not become heads of departments,” Dr Khan said.

At a meeting of employees representative bodies, it was decided that they could agitate and go to court if an ordinance is promulgated

He added that employees had demanded the inclusion of the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) vice chancellor in the governing board, but instead the vice chancellor of Quaid-i-Azam University has been included as a member of the board of governors.

“We had also demanded that the hospital should be not excluded from Schedule III, but it is being excluded. We have decided to challenge the ordinance once it is promulgated in the court and agitate against it.

“Not only are employees of the hospital on board but we have decided to establish a grand health alliance of employees of the federal capital to resist it,” he said.

Employees Association representative Tanveer Noshahi said it was unfortunate that Pims employees were suffering due to decisions made by the government and the hospital’s management.

“Earlier, during the tenure of the PPP, the hospital was placed under the SZABMU and declared a teaching hospital through legislation. However, during the tenure of the PML-N it was again declared a public sector hospital through legislation. Now efforts are being made to convert the hospital into an MTI,” he said.

“All the representative bodies, including the Young Doctors Association, Senior Doctors, Nursing Association, Officers Association, Paramedical and Non Medical Staff, Clerk Association, Christian Welfare Association and others participated in the meeting. The government has decided to run the hospital through an eight member governing body and junior officers will be appointed heads of departments. Moreover, the hospital management will be able to terminate the services of employees. We fear that within a few years all permanent employees will be terminated and they will be offered contracts,” Mr Noshahi said.

He added that a health risk allowance was announced for staff who worked in Covid-19 wards, but officers in the accounts and administration departments received four basic salaries as their health risk allowance while those who worked in the Covid-19 wards only received one basic salary.

Pims employees previously went on strike under the All Employees Pims Restoration Movement against efforts to convert the hospital into an MTI in August 2019.

The government has been considering promulgating an MTI ordinance, which would lead to the hospital being operated by a board of governors empowered to make decisions regarding the hiring and termination of staff, salary increases, the expansion of the hospital and increases in fees and laboratory test charges.

Pims employees have criticised the plan, alleging that it is a way to privatise the hospital that will cause both staff and patients to suffer.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2020