After the grouping in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on the new service structure of doctors, medical and paramedical staff at the country’s second major government hospital have fallen into the same situation where the Executive Director (ED) has started pressurising the staff to accept the new pay structure.
In the PIMS hospital, meanwhile, the situation has worsened and during a meeting held recently the Executive Director Mehmood Jamal snubbed one of his senior colleagues for their opposing views and sent a complaint to the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) secretary and the prime minister (PM).
A PIMS official on condition of anonymity told Pakistan Today, “During a meeting conducted to sort out the ongoing tension over the new and old service structure, the ED snubbed a senior official, Joint Executive Director Dr Altaf Hussain, and when he replied in the same coin, the ED sent a complaint to CADD Secretary and the PM.”
He said that during the discussion when the senior officials differed from his opinion, Jamal shouted at them saying, “I don’t want to listen to this nonsense.”
At the meeting, Dr Altaf was of the opinion that the ED should enlist the staff that had opted for the Health Personnel Pay Scales (HPS) and Basic Pay Scales (BPS) separately as the CADD had demanded, but instead the ED and other officials were pressurising the junior staff to accept the HPS.
The majority of medical and paramedical staff at PIMS as well as Polyclinic has rejected the new HPS and they prefer to remain in the old service structure of basic pay scale (BPS).
Meanwhile, the hospitals’ administrations have also been divided into two groups as some top officials perceive the new service structure to be beneficial while others think it is not.
An official in Polyclinic who wanted to remain on BPS said, “Some people for their vested interests are pushing doctors and other staff to accept the HPS. We refuse three times daily to accept the HPS but the ED gives a notice everyday asking for the opinion of staff on HPS.
He lamented, “What is this nonsense, if one has rejected an idea, why must they be asked again and again?”
He said that nowadays the Administration of the hospital was sitting till late night to devise a strategy to attract the doctors for HPS. He claimed that majority of administration members were frustrated and not happy with the situation but they are being pressurised by the ED and cabinet secretary Nargis Sethi to accept the new structure.
“Many of administration members themselves have not opted for the HPS yet but the ED is going to retire next month and he is trying to make the high officials happy to get himself an extension,” he said. Both the EDs of PIMS and Polyclinic were not available for comments despite repeated attempts.
