LAHORE – The “fresh” demand of salary raise for professors and other senior ranks by the Young Doctors Association (YDA) is a “masterstroke”, laying bare the so far implicit “support” of senior doctors for the ongoing strike, Pakistan Today has learnt. The YDA had initially demanded salary raise only for house officers, medical officers (MO) and PG trainees. But after talks with Zulfiqar Khosa to resolve the issue, the YDA initially announced calling-off the strike, but later took back the decision on the pretext that a salary raise should also be announced for senior registrars, associate professors and professors for the strike to end. This sudden shift has exposed the so far implicit support of senior doctors. Until Thursday, the senior doctors in meetings with the Punjab government to resolve the issue have always assured the high-ups that things can be “managed” without support of the young doctors.
But they have now come forward and showed an active support for the YDA as well as the ongoing strike. Talking to Pakistan Today, many senior doctors from various major hospitals of the provincial metropolis expressed their support for the issue of salary raise. After the YDA included salary raise for their seniors in their demands, the senior doctors have also started taking active part in the strike. All associate professors and professors jointly met the Fatima Jinnah Medical College (FJMC) principal and informed her that it is impossible for them to run the wards without juniors in the wards. They also expressed their disdain for the indifference shown by institutional heads to the plight of professors and APs. As a result work remained suspended in the entire hospital.
A senior surgeon at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, seeking anonymity, said that wards and hospitals are managed with teamwork. “Asking one doctor to handle a ward which needs 14 doctors is impossible. There are so many sections and areas of specialty and a few seniors cannot deliver without support from young doctors, just as they cannot run it without us,” the doctor said, adding that seniors feel for the issue and support the issue. Another professor from Mayo Hospital said, “The matter is very complicated. It is the bureaucracy which does not let any institution develop. Without addressing the basic problem of salary raise, the healthcare system will collapse and our perception is that the Punjab government is not serious in resolving our issue. We think that a special pay scale system should be introduced and we unconditionally support their [young doctors’] cause.”
On the other hand, the YDA has also started collecting en bloc resignations of professors in teaching hospitals across Punjab. The YDA claimed to have received resignations of the entire academic council of Children’s Hospital, from Rahim Yar Khan while many others to follow the lead. Talking to Pakistan Today, YDA President Dr Hamid Butt said that Zulfiqar Khosa had committed with them that the CM will meet the young doctors on Thursday evening and publicly announce a special pay package for doctors in the media. “But a bunch of bureaucrats came to see us and not the chief minister. If Khosa has committed something on behalf of the CM, the bureaucrats have no authority to undo it,” he said.
To a question, he said, “Support of the senior doctors is not a new development, whenever anyone asked us about the support from seniors; we always said it will be clear when the time comes. Now the time has come and it has become clear.” While the chief minister chaired a cabinet meeting on Friday evening to discuss the overall situation and the issue of young doctors but no minister or advisor was available for comments.
