PESHAWAR: The majority of the doctors mostly serving in the public sector hospitals for the past two decades are frustrated as the Board of Governors of different hospitals have failed to give them a proper service structure and fringe benefits even after one and a half years of implementation of the much-trumpeted Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act 2015.
The frustration of the doctors, some of them foreign qualified, intensified when the Board of Governors (BoGs) of tertiary care hospitals approved high salaries for the newly-appointed medical directors, hospital directors and those recently hired for various other positions on handsome packages.
The disparity in salaries between senior doctors working in medical and teaching institutions for the past many years and those newly appointed has created a sense of disappointment among the former who have spent their life serving these institutions.
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)-led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa introduced health reforms in the shape of MTI Act 2015, believing that it would improve patient care and streamline an outdated administrative mechanism of the public sector hospitals.
Also, the PTI government claimed to have granted financial and administrative autonomy to the medical and teaching hospitals and appointed independent BoGs to run affairs of these institutions.
The government has declared Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) in Peshawar, Mardan Medical Complex (MMC) in Mardan and Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH) in Abbottabad as part of the MTI and appointed BoGs to manage these institutions.
The chairmen of the BoGs held several meetings with faculty members of these institutions to convince them to accept the MTI and opt for the Institutional-Based Private Practice (IBP).They failed in winning support of doctors and other health workers for the MTI Act 2015 as none of the BoG chairmen had convincing answers to repeated questions to their questions about the service structure and financial benefits in the new system.
“We have asked them repeatedly how much raise we will get in the new system. We were told that only those doctors would get pay raise who have opted for IBP,” a senior faculty member of a tertiary care hospital told Media.
Pleading anonymity, he said the BoGs had fixed Rs500,000 salary for each of the medical director and hospital director. He added that almost all the medical directors selected recently were working as professors in their respective hospitals.
“Previously professors held the positions of medical director without getting any extra financial reward. The professors mostly got Rs150,000 salary but now the government has appointed them head of hospital and is paying them Rs500,000. This obviously is the change that the PTI promised,” he remarked.
A senior faculty member at the KTH said he had been working as associate professor for 23 years and was getting Rs127,000, while the BoG recently appointed director nursing on monthly salary package of Rs200,000.
Besides, he said the BoG had recently recruited an OPD manager and he was costing the hospital Rs150,000-Rs200,000.The government has approved Health Professional Allowance (HPA) from Rs40,000 to Rs60,000 for all the doctors except those serving in hospitals declared as MTI, including LRH, KTH, HMC, ATH and MMC.
“Would you believe that a district specialist is paid Rs147,000 and medical officer at the Police Hospital Rs110,000; while a highly qualified senior registrar having qualification of FCPS is getting Rs75,000 only,” he pointed out.
According to the faculty members, the KTH administration was planning to hire a pharmacist for Rs250,000 to Rs300,000 and director finance for Rs300, 000.
“Those providing services to patients and running the hospitals are constantly being ignored. If the government is not happy with our work it should get rid of us and give us golden handshake,” he stressed.
