Sindh plans to seek permission from SC to recruit 6,000 doctors

CM says health services can’t be improved unless required doctors  are hired 

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed his legal team to seek permission from the Supreme Court to recruit 6,000 doctors on an emergency basis in order to meet the health emergency he has imposed to improve services in the province.

He took this decision while presiding over a meeting on health department issues at the CM House on Friday. The meeting was attended by Health Minister Dr Sikanadar Mandhro, Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, Principal Secretary to CM Naveed Kamran Baloch, Health Secretary Usman Chachar, Finance Secretary Hassan Naqvi and others.

The chief minister said that he had declared health emergency under which health services were to be made available round the clock in government hospitals, but “I am sorry this emergency would produce results for poor people when the shortage of doctors would be met by making new recruitments”.

He added that he wanted to recruit 6,000 doctors who had qualified the SPSC written test, but the court had stopped the commission from working. The Supreme Court had also stopped the implementation of the SPSC recommendations, he added.

The chief minister directed Advocate General Zameer Ghumro to file an urgent application with the Supreme Court requesting it to allow the recruitment of 6,000 doctors on humanitarian grounds.

He was told that the appointment of the required doctors may create a rural-urban quota issue, as more doctors of rural areas or urban areas might have qualified than the allocated seats. 

On this, the chief minister said that the people of rural and urban areas were equally dear to him. “If any problem develops I would create more positions where a shortage is identified,” he said and added he would not deprive rural or urban domiciled doctors of job opportunities. He directed the chief secretary to look into these issues and settle them.

Shah directed the health department to work out a plan for the proposed 6,000 doctors, saying that the plan must be hospital- specific, which meant that where needed doctors must be posted.

Giving a policy decision, he directed the chief secretary to put a condition in the offer letters of doctors to be recruited shortly that they would have to work in rural areas at least for two years. “Those who fail to serve in rural areas for the required period of two years would not be eligible for onward promotion,” he said categorically. 

He also directed the chief secretary to make the necessary amendment in the APT rules for in-service doctors (already in service) to serve in rural areas for at least two years. This condition would apply to in-service doctors from June 2017.

Those who avoided serving in rural areas by going on leave would not be eligible for promotion in the next grade, he said, adding that every doctor without any gap had to serve in a rural area if he/she wanted promotion to the next grade.

Talking about doctors working on a contract basis in Thar, the chief minister directed the health department to submit a proposal for their regularisation. “They have served ailing people of the desert area and they must be rewarded for that,” he said and directed the chief secretary to get their Thar allowance released at the earliest.  On this, the health secretary, Usman Chachar, said that he had worked out a plan to include a special thar allowance in the salaries of doctors working in Thar.

The chief minister talking a policy decision directed the health department to develop an Information Management System (IMS) for all staff members. “You must have an online data about who is working where and how much salary he/she is taking when his last promotion was made and when the next promotion is due, how many disciplinary actions have been taken against him/her and how much leave he/she has availed and what is the status of his/her attendance,” he said and ordered that the job must be done within two months. “This would help you to ward off ghost doctors/employees if any and would improve health services.”

Shah gave them this month and said by the end of December the entire process must be completed.