ABBOTTABAD: After expiry of the deadline given by the Health Department to the employees for availing the option of absorption in the Medical Teaching Institution, the associations of all the employees of Abbottabad have rejected the “Medical Institutions Reforms Act 2015” and decided to go for agitation and also move the court. A meeting of employees of the Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH) decided here to form the All Employees Health Coordination Council at the ATH level. It would have representation of the presidents and secretaries of all the associations. The representatives of the Provincial Doctors Association, Paramedical Association, Nursing Council, Clerks and Class-IV associations of the ATH attended the meeting. The council will decide all future matters related to the issue and express solidarity with the Provincial Health Coordination Council that has already scheduled its protest activities in the province.The participants of the meeting flayed the government’s decision of shifting the health department employees to the surplus pool. Terming the Medical Institutions Reforms Act 2015 controversial, the employees decided to move the court against it.Dr Amin Ahmad and Dr Khizer Hayat, Abid Jadoon, Syed Habib Shah, Mushtaq Ahmed, Abdul Waheed, Khan Gul, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Khan , Shamsur Rehman, Javed Khan, Riasat Begum and Khalida Shaheen attended the meeting. According to the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act 2015, all the civil servants serving in the existing Medical Teaching Institution shall be given an option either to continue service as civil servants or opt for employment at the Medical Teaching Institution. The option letter issued on April 30 had fixed July 7 as the deadline for absorption.The provincial Health Department decided to create “surplus pool” for the civil servants by withdrawing all the health employees from the teaching institutions and giving complete autonomy to the medical institutions. More than 237 employees of the Health Department working at the ATH out of the total 550 will be directly affected by the new policy of provincial government.These 237 employees include 12 doctors, nurses, paramedics, clerks, ward boys, and others. It may be recalled that the Medical Institutions Act 2001 also offered absorption to health department employees and fixed a deadline in 2006, but only a few availed the option and preferred to remain in the civil servants category.
