Service structure meetings have recently taken a positive turn, after the Heath Department and the stake holders including Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Young Doctors Association (YDA), General Cadre Doctors Association (GCDA), Executive Doctors Association, and MTA agreed to sign on a draft of service structure created on a point to point basis.
There was apprehension amongst some representing doctors that points agreed upon were not put in writing and there could be confusion in establishing a consensus.
While presiding over the provincial council meeting of GCDA on “service structure updates” here in Lahore, the Punjab General Cadre Doctors Association (GCDA) President, Dr Masood Akhtar Sheikh said that the method of signing a point wise memorandum of understanding (MoU) would help bring the service structure issue to a practical end.
Executive Doctors President Dr Haq Nawaz Bharwana, GCDA General Secretary, Dr Rana Rafiq, Vice President Dr Asad Abbas Shah, Vice President Dental, Dr Asim Farooqui, Joint Secretaries Dr Arif Iftikhar, Dr Ejaz Warriach and Dr Saif-ur-Rehman also spoke on the occasion while the members of the provincial councils of GCDA Dr Shaukat, Dr Aslam Hameed, Dr Nazeer Choohan, Dr Farooq, Dr Shahid, Dr Amir Nazeer, Dr M. Arif, Dr Malik Riaz, Dr Zulfiqar, Dr Nasrullah, Dr Alia, Dr Afshan, Dr Fauzia, Dr Gulzar, Dr Abdul Rehman, Dr Naeem Awan, Dr Asif Masood, Dr Adil Shah, Dr Qamar Iqbal, Dr Ejaz , Dr Liaqat, Dr Ayub, along with representative from different districts also attended the meeting.
Dr Masood briefed the provincial council regarding meeting with special secretary health in which it was agreed that the best way to come to a practical end was to go point wise. Dr Masood said that it felt as if the health department was very positive and wanted the matter to come to a point where all the stake holders would be satisfied.
“A proper service structure was the only answer to the current issues” Dr Masood added.
Dr Masood elaborated that while concluding the service structure deal, it must be kept in mind that the major stake holders were the GCDA numbering more than 14,000 in the province, as compared to only 2,500 teaching cadre doctors and 1,200 specialists.
Dr Masood said that most of the points of service structure had principally been agreed upon and it was just a matter of time that the structure would be finalized. He said that the major points of the GCDA were agreed upon, like the revision of four tier formula for making more room at the level of grade 18, 19 and 20. Removal of deadlock for promotion of general cadre doctors at grade 18 and those who had already served the department for more than 12 years should be promoted to grade 19 and those with 17 years of experience should be promoted to grade 20, he added. Similarly, another point was the acknowledgement of fellowship and diploma for the doctors of general cadre with 4 increments for fellows and 2 increments for those possessing diplomas, said Dr Masood.
The names of those doctors who had already moved on from the general cadre to specialist and teaching cadre should be removed from the seniority list of the general cadre doctors and a new seniority list should be notified to enhance the promotion of the general cadre doctors, after which the doctors would have no hesitation in signing this draft, he added.
Dr Asad Abbas Shah said that they had to be flexible and if some point of the agenda did not reach a consensus, then a committee of all the doctors representative could be notified to carry on the brain storming sessions on left over issues to reach a workable solution.
These few points should not be reasons to create a dead lock in the negotiations, he said,
Dr Rana Rafiqe said that delay in promotions from grade 17 to 18, and then from 18 to 19 grades after an average of 16-20 years must also be rectified. The final service structure should be balanced and should not be inclined towards one cadre alone.
Dr Haq Nawaz Bharwana said that the executive cadre committee should also be notified to start its work on the executive cadre.
