‘Bureaucracy working against contract doctors’

[LRE]

‘Bureaucracy working against contract doctors’



Monday, September 15, 2008
By Amer Malik

LAHORE

THE Contract Doctors Association (CDA), Punjab, has accused that bureaucracy is creating hurdles in the way of regularisation of contract doctors as announced by Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif.

The Contract Doctors Association during its emergent meeting held under the chairmanship of Dr Mumtaz Ahmad on Sunday expressed distrust over the scrutiny committee formed to submit recommendations for regularisation of the contract doctors, saying that the committee was not impartial as their was no representation of contract doctors in it.

The contract doctors said that Secretary Health had included those people in the scrutiny committee, who were generally against the regularisation of the contract doctors. “There are either regular doctors or retired professors and foreign or private sector doctors on the committee,” they said, adding that the contract doctors had no confidence on the recommendations of such a partial committee.

They demanded to re-constitute the committee with substantial representation of the Pakistan Medical Association and Contract Doctors Association.

The association also formed an 11-member action committee comprising contract doctors from all teaching hospitals/medical colleges of the province, which would devise its future strategy after looking into process of regularisation of the contract doctors as per decision taken by the chief minister in this regard.

The action committee comprised Dr Rashid Qamar (QAMC/BVH Bahawalpur), Dr Muhammad Irshad-ul-Haq (SZMC/Hospital Rahimyar Khan), Dr Afsar Ali Bhatti (PGMI/LGH Lahore), Dr Javed Iqbal (PMC/Allied Hospital Faisalabad), Dr Waqas Raza (RMC/RGH Rawalpindi), Dr Rao Shahid (NMC/Hospital Multan), Dr Khalid Javed Khan (FJMC/SGRH Lahore), Dr Mumtaz Ahmad (PGMI/LGH Lahore), Dr Nazir Ahmad (KEMU/Mayo Hospital Lahore), Dr Ziaullah Malik (SIMS/Services Hospital Lahore) and Dr Riaz Ahmad (AIMC/Jinnah Hospital Lahore).

The members of the action committee believed that the regularisation of contract doctors was being thwarted under a conspiracy with bureaucracy’s traditional tactic of red-tapism, and vowed that they would frustrate any attempt to foil regularisation of contract doctors.

The Contract Doctors Association, Punjab, President Dr Mumtaz Ahmad said that the contract doctors had unanimously rejected the proposal of regularisation of contract doctors after appearing before a board constituted in this regard.

“It is a grave injustice if the experienced contract doctors are made to appear along with fresh candidates for regularisation,” he said, adding that the government’s decision to give 1 mark per year to compensate for experience was mere eyewash, as according to him, Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) was already giving compensation marks for experience under the same formula.

About the scrutiny committee, he said that the contract doctors would not accept the partial recommendations of any committee, which did not have any representation of contract doctors or Pakistan Medical Association.

“We can’t trust the recommendations of the likes of Dr Amer Aziz, Prof Dr Abdul Majeed Chaudhry, Dr Awais Farooqui, etc,” he said, adding that the scrutiny committee should be reconstituted for impartial decision on regularisation of the contract doctors.

Talking to The News, Secretary Health Anwaar A Khan said that under the Punjab government’s decision in principle, the contract doctors would be regularised across the board without any discrimination.

He said that it was extremely important to select only the best among the teaching cadre by putting them to some sort of a transparent test with an ultimate objective to strengthen the system of medical education and healthcare structure in the province.

However, he said the contract doctors of teaching cadre would be dealt as per their different categories i.e. either recruited by Special Selection Boards (SSBs) or the respective district governments.

He said that the contract appointments of doctors made by districts governments generally fulfilled the merit, so they might be regularized en bloc.

However, he said that the Special Selection Boards, in certain individual cases, had recruited favourites on contract in violation of the merit.

“The gold medallists and higher performers have complained that Special Selections Boards had rejected them to accommodate incompetent and non-deserving candidates on contract,” he informed.

However, he said that the provincial government had decided to give 1 mark per year to contract doctors to compensate for experience with maximum of up to 5 marks for five years of experience.

To a question, he said that Contract Doctors Association’s reservation against the scrutiny committee was unjustified as the said committee was yet to submit its recommendations in this regard.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=135906