MULTAN, Sept 15: The post-graduate registrars (PGRs) working at the Nishter Hospital as additional trainees are allegedly not being paid for the services they are rendering for several months.

In a letter to the Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, the PGRs have requested him to look into the matter sympathetically and direct the hospital management to pay them the monthly stipend for the job they are doing as full time.

They say that every PGR is entitled to draw a monthly stipend of Rs10,000 from the teaching institute where he or she is doing the training for FCPS Part-II. But, the Nishter Hospital's administration has been denying them their right, they allege.

They further say to add insult to injury the College of Physicians and Surgeons charges Rs28,000 enrolment fee for registration as trainees in FCPS Part-II and this is in addition to other expenses of getting post-graduate specialization, including Rs10,000 examination fee.

"We have still to look towards our parents for meeting our day-to-day expenses," they add. They say as PGRs they are not supposed to do any other job except to be available full time at their training institute. They point out that about 35 PGRs are currently working as additional trainees at the Nishter Hospital while another batch of 20 or more is likely to join the ranks.

The additional PGRs plead that the situation is causing brain drain, as the doctors are opting to leave the country to make both ends meet. This, they say, is loss of the government investment in the health sector.

When talked, hospital's principal executive officer Prof Dr Shabbir Nasir said it was his generosity that he had allowed additional PGRs to work at the hospital to complete their training compulsory for the FCPS Part-II. "They should leave the hospital if they have any problem," he said.

He said the hospital had about 200 sanctioned posts of PGRs and, therefore, the additional trainees could not be paid. He said he had thrice communicated to the provincial health authorities to increase number of paid posts of PGRs, but to no avail. "I always get the reply that the matter is with the finance department," Dr Nasir added.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Medical Association's local chapter has also supported the demand of additional PGRs for stipend. The PMA has threatened that it will go on strike if the Nishter Hospital administration does not resolve the matter at the earliest.