Health Department gives cold shoulder to PPSC-selected MOs

Scores of medical officers (MOs) selected through the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) on regular jobs have been running from pillar to post to get their salaries and appointment letters from the Health Department for the last several months now, Pakistan Today has learnt. As per details, a number of postgraduate trainee doctors from Services Hospital and the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, who were selected as MOs through PPSC in July last year, were posted to various provincial metropolis’ hospitals on the understanding that they will continue their training while getting salaries against the appointed slots. The Health Department initially appointed these doctors to Kot Khwaja Saeed Hospital where after serving for three months they were relieved of their duties and sent to Said Mitha Hospital and now they have been asked to report to the Health Department for further appointment.
Of these doctors, nine from Services Hospital, two from the Punjab Institute of Cardiology and five from Jinnah Hospital. They have been pleading with the Health Department for their appointment letters and salaries. An MO told Pakistan Today that the hospitals were notified of their appointments in July 2010 but they did not hand over appointment letters to them. “After a long delay, we were told to report our joining in January 2011. The entire month of February passed but our pay slips were not issued. Finally we were told that our services were no longer needed and that we should go to the Health Department and get further appointment. It has been more than 10 months now that we have been waiting for our salaries,” he added.
He said MNA Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, who is the chairman of Said Mitha Hospital’s board of management, has issued several directives for release of their salaries, but to no avail. Lahore Health EDO Dr Umar Farooq Baloch said the postgraduate trainee MOs were not part of CDGL. “They worked for us until we appointed our own MOs, and now we have sent them back to the Health Department where they will get fresh appointments,” he said. As regards the salary issue, Baloch passed on the buck to the Health Department, saying it was the department’s responsibility to release the salaries. Health Special Secretary Waseem Mukhtar said the department would ‘adjust’ these doctors in some other hospitals soon and their salaries would also be released. He said that he would look into whether the EDO acted on his own or had informed the department.