HYDERABAD: Representatives of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) Grand Health Alliance have urged the Sindh government to look into the issues of dental graduates who were not getting jobs in the public sector hospitals due to inadequate number of seats whereas 1,200 graduates completed their dental education every year in the province.
They expressed concern over the fact that cases of oral cancer were increasing in every city that required a multidisciplinary surgery of patients, but dental doctors’ posts were not being increased. They said that doctors were already protesting against withdrawal of the risk allowance which had been allowed to every doctor during the pandemic, but the government was not paying attention to it. They demanded payment of the risk allowance.
Speaking at a joint news conference at the local press club on Wednesday, YDA leaders Roshan Chandio, Dr Faizan Memon, Dr Kashif Shar, Dr Saddam Rind and others said that required number of seats was not being advertised for dentists; thus, their induction did not take place in government jobs.
They said their post-graduation for the FCPS had become difficult as required slots were limited and once a student was not inducted by an institution for training within three years of the completion of the FCPS studies, he/she was required to reappear in the FCPS examination, which was again a burden.
Sharing details, they said 1,200 dentists passed out from 19 private and public sector institutions every year in Sindh and disclosed that 12,000 dentists on an average had completed their education in the past 14 years in the province.
They added that around 6,800 dentists remained jobless as only 385 jobs were advertised in 14 years while 220 jobs were given only in the past five years out of those 385.
They said that it showed disparity in the number of jobs available and number of dentists getting degree every year. “Why doesn’t the government ban their education if doctors can’t be given jobs?”, they sarcastically said.
They said the Sindh health secretary looked totally unprepared when they talked to them and feigned ignorance as if he knew nothing about dental doctors’ jobs issue.
They said that 5,000 cases of oral cancer were reported in Sindh every month while 1,000 were pertained to Hyderabad division and many required dental surgery.
They said the dental doctors needed jobs and they should be posted in every taluka and district hospitals along with their equipment so that they could attain dental surgeries, lasting for several hours
They said that dentists did not have any special cadre in government jobs although they completed their masters from credible institutions. They said that dentists’ availability was most important, given the rising number of cases of cancer caused by mainpuri and gutka consumption, but the government remained least concerned about it.
Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2022