MULTAN, March 19: House surgeons and internees of the dental section of the Nishtar Hospital will observe a strike on Wednesday (today) in protest against non-payment of house job allowance to all BDS graduates.

The president of the recently formed Dental House Surgeons Association, Dr Raja Aftab, told Dawn on Tuesday that the future course of action would be decided after the strike.

He said the bureaucracy was discriminating between BDS graduates of the Nisthar Medical College and the de ‘Montmorency College of Dentistry.

“All graduates of the de ‘Montmorency College get paid house job at the Punjab Dental Hospital. Only four Nishtar graduates are paid the allowance and the rest have to serve without remuneration,” he said.

There are two institutions in the Punjab which offer BDS degree.

Some 45 students graduate from the Nishtar Medical College, Multan, and 50 from the de’ Montmorency College of Dentistry, Lahore, annually.

The de’ Montmorency College is affiliated with the Punjab Dental Hospital while the BDS graduates of the Nishtar Medical College serve at the dental section of the outpatient department of the hospital.

There are four posts of paid house job at the Nisthar Hospital for BDS graduates while the Punjab Dental Hospital offers 45 paid house jobs — 23 for house surgeons and 22 for internees.

The dental section of the Nishtar Medical College has been working since 1972. Around 100 patients daily visit the dental OPD of the Nishtar Hospital.

At present, the dentistry wing of the Nishtar College and hospital is providing services in the field of orthodontics, operative, prosthetic, surgery and radiology.

Nishtar Hospital officials said the dental section was a great source of income and this was mainly because of the house surgeons and internees who bore the 80 per cent workload at the OPD.

The hospital administration has been requesting the Punjab health department to increase the number of paid house jobs at its dental section since 1995.

No one has bothered to even intimate the hospital administration about any progress on the subject.