ISLAMABAD – Learning its lesson from the young doctors’ strike and on the special directive of the presidency, the Ministry of Health has moved a summary to the prime minister office for starting evening classes in all medical colleges to raise the number doctors.
Officials from the health ministry said this here at the meeting of National Assembly Standing Committee on Health on Thursday. Secretary Incharge Health Nargis Sethi while briefing the meeting said that in first phase of the pilot project, evening classes would be started in one private and public hospital of every province but the committee members and PMDC opposed the proposal by saying that there is no shortage of doctors.
PMDC and other members were of the opinion that doctors are large in number but there is a need to give them more incentives. Mostly doctors do not want to go to the rural areas so PMDC suggested that instead of producing new doctors more incentives should be given to doctors to encourage to work in rural areas.
Committee directed PMDC to resolve young doctors’ issue immediately as thousands of poor patients are suffering badly.
Sethi told the committee that demands of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) Islamabad chapter are being discussed but have not been met yet. She said by the next week salary packages of doctors will be submitted to Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani for approval. However, she said the ministry would interfere in doctors’ affairs related to Punjab province as both president and prime minister had stopped her from doing so.
PMDC officials briefed the committee that ban is enforced on establishing new medicals colleges from April 1, this year but the old ten applications would be entertain including 5 from public and 10 from private sector. On the other hand new medical college set up at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) would soon start its classes, they said.
