PESHAWAR, Oct 20: The Post-graduate Medical Institute has urged the provincial government to restore stipend of trainee medical officers (TMOs) to save the institute from being de-recognised by the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP), officials said.

“The decision to stop payment of stipend to private TMOs will certainly lead to de-recognition by the CPSP because it’s rules do not provide for FCPS-II training if the trainees are not paid mandatory stipend which is equal to the minimum salary paid to a scale-17 medical officer,” said a letter addressed to the secretary health by dean PGMI Prof Arshad Javaid a week ago.

The government, on September 21, had informed the PGMI that private doctors would complete postgraduate training without any stipend.

He letter says that the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre Karachi was disaccredited by the CPSP due to non-payment of stipend to TMOs and the PGMI Peshawar may also meet a similar fate if the decision to stop payment of stipend was not reviewed.

Around 2,500 medical students are receiving training in public sector medical colleges in the NWFP and are paid a substantial amount of money although they are not government employees. Similarly 550 house officers who graduate from these medical colleges every year are paid monthly stipend of Rs 6,210 each, they too are not government servants.

On the same analogy payment to 225 postgraduate students whose stipend is Rs10,000 per month is a viable and more cost-effective investment, as these TMOs provide round-the-clock quality health care to patients of the teaching hospitals. The government had increased stipend of TMOs from Rs6,210 to Rs 10,000 early this year.

According to the letter, the decision is discriminatory as in other provinces not only this stipend is paid to all the private TMOs but it has recently been increased to Rs16,000 per TMO.

The dean PGMI has requested the government to review its decision for future of specialised medical education in the province and to avoid virtual collapse of the post graduate medical education system that was put in place by years of hard work.

Non-government doctors who are referred to as private TMOs were initially inducted as honorary trainees and no stipend was paid to them. However, in 1999 CPSP framed new rules according to which it was made compulsory for the institution to pay stipend to private TMOs. 35 more seats were created for private TMOs which were further increased to 120 in 2000. In the year 2003, the government increased the private TMO seats to 250.