PESHAWAR: The contractual doctors have expressed concern about delay in regularisation of their services and delay in release of their pending salaries.

Dr Naveed Farooq Wazir, general secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ad hoc Medical Officers Association, told a press conference here on Wednesday that the doctors faced delay in getting salaries.

Flanked by other members of the association, Dr Wazir said the health department had recruited 1,122 doctors on contract, who performed duties during the coronavirus pandemic. He added many contract doctors had died of the virus and over 100 had been infected. He said the contract doctors had long been demanding regularisation of jobs.

Dr Wazir demanded of provincial health minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra to regularise their services, or they would be left with no option but to go on a strike. He said many contract doctors held postgraduate degrees and were eligible to work in any hospital.

The doctors, he had presented their demands to the health department time and again with the hope that their issues would be resolved without delay, but to no avail. He said the doctors were facing financial problems, including job insecurity.

“We will announce boycott of duties and start a province-wide protest campaign for acceptance of our demands,” he warned.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2021