The deadlock between the protesting Young Doctors Association (YDA) demanding a service structure and the Punjab government still persists, as both sides failed to find out any solution to current situation affecting poor patients as the doctors' strike continues for the 13th consecutive day on Saturday. Fed up with protesting doctors, patients and their relatives held demonstrations at Sir Ganga Ram and Mayo Hospitals Lahore on Saturday.
They said poor patients are facing terrible situation at government hospitals, as they are left unattended. They alleged that senior doctors are not performing their duties and focusing on private practice. On an average around 35,000 patients visit OPDs at public hospitals across the province, including around 15,000 in public hospitals of the provincial metropolis alone.
Sources in the Health Department told Business Recorder that lists of protesting doctors have been prepared and disciplinary action against them would be taken on Monday, if they failed to resume their duties. In the first instance, the office bearers of YDA would be sacked, if they did not resume their duties.
According to them, the provincial government has also prepared a contingency plan to tackle the situation, if the doctors did not resume duties on Monday. Furthermore, doctors would be recruited on walk in interview basis while those recruited through the Punjab Public Service Commission have been asked to resume their duties immediately.
It may be noted that under the Essential Services Act 1958, the head of any institute may recommend dismissal from service a doctor or an employee for violating the act besides prosecution may also be initiated against him/her which may result in a one-year jail term if violation is proved.
Upon Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif's request, the Army has announced that it will provide services of 150 of its doctors to the provincial government to cover up for those on strike. The Army doctors will start their services from Sunday, and will be performing their duties in uniform at the public hospitals.
According to the military spokesperson, doctors of the armed forces will not bear responsibility for operational matters, which would be handled by the provincial government. The government hospitals in Punjab are facing critical shortage of medical professionals since the YDA started its protest. As a result, poor patients, who were left unattended, have had to bear the brunt of the strike at public hospitals across the province for the last 13 days.
It may be noted that the Punjab government had increased the salaries of the doctors last year but they also demanded improvement in service structure too. The doctors demanded their recruitment directly into Basic Pay Scale (BPS-18) besides facilities including house, telephone, five advance increments, two special allowances for professors - teaching allowance and health professional allowance - both equal to their running basic salary. They also demanded soft loans for cars for BPS-18 doctors, 1,000cc cars with petrol and driver for BPS-20 and 1,300cc vehicles for all doctors in BPS-21 with driver and petrol.
On the other hand, Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz Ahmad has urged Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif to resolve the issue of young doctors through dialogue. Talking to the media in Lahore, Raja Riaz said that threatening of imprisonment and imposing section 144 on doctors exposed the authoritarian approach of the Punjab Chief Minister.
He warned the Punjab government that the situation could worsen if the doctors were tortured or sent to jails as they are the assets of the nation and they could not be cornered through stubborn attitude. He urged the doctors and the CM to make their attitude flexible for the sake of poor patients.
Further, a spokesman of Health Department Punjab denied the allegations levelled by Young Doctors Association regarding wrong figures of salaries and said that the Health Department has released the chart of average salaries of doctors. The spokesman said that a medical officer working in Health Facility in rural areas received Rs 12 thousand as health sector reforms allowance and Rs 15 thousand as health professional allowance in addition to his salary. Thus, a medical officer receives additional Rs 27 thousand and in this way the total salary of a medical officer exceeds to Rs 60 thousand.
The spokesman further said that a medical officer working in emergency ward of teaching hospitals receives a special allowance equal to 50 percent of the basic pay and in this way the total salary of a medical officer also exceeds to Rs 60 thousand. In addition, the doctors working in teaching hospitals also receive their monthly share in thousands from the income of the hospital.
The spokesman pointed out that the medical officers performing duties in teaching hospitals of Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan receive additional pay of Rs 15 thousand to Rs 20 thousand under special package and their total salary comes to Rs 70 thousand. The spokesman made it clear that the total emoluments of a government servant are considered a total salary and deductions made from it are also part of the salary of an employee. He said that according to the AG office record the total salary of a medical officer of grade-17 comes to Rs 60 thousand to Rs 80 thousand. He said that there is no truth in the allegations levelled by YDA and these elements are making futile efforts to get sympathies of the people through wrong statements.
The YDA office-bearers, including Dr Rana Sohail, Dr Salman Kazmi, Dr Talha Sherwani, Dr Ghulam Qasim and others demanded the Chief Minister of Punjab take personal interest in resolving the matter. They said the government is not showing serious attitude on their issues.