Young medics, consultants to resist MTI, PMC moves

Islamabad : Besides supporting the call of the Young Doctors Association for the October 14 march on Islamabad against the formation of the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC), the young medical practitioners of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), including consultants, have also announced that they will both stage street protests and move the court to stop the government from turning their government hospital, the largest in the federal capital, into a Medical Teaching Institution (MTI).

They insist that the MTI status for PIMS would deprive them of their rights and status as civil servants. PIMS Young Consultants Association of Pakistan Chairman Dr Asfandyar Khan told 'The News' that the PMC Bill, which was bulldozed through parliament by the government last month would badly affect the standard of medical education and create problems for doctors, especially those serving abroad. He said the replacement of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council with the PMC was a conspiracy against medical education and practice in the country.

Dr Asfandyar said the formation of the PMC promised the ‘complete freedom’ of fixing fee and offering admissions to private medical and dental colleges. He called for the immediate reversal of the ‘black’ law and restoration of the PMDC. The YCAP chairman also resented the approval of the draft MTI law by the premier and warned that if the hospital was made an MTI, the young doctors and consultants would agitate and take the government to the court of law against it.

He said former special assistant to the prime minister on national health services Dr Zafar Mirza, former health secretary Allah Baksh Malik and current Islamabad MNA Ali Awan had formally promised the protection of the status of PIMS employees as civil servants but the proposed law didn’t show that.

Dr Asfandyar also complained that the hospital’s employees, who didn’t opt for the MTI service, would be considered deputationists and they won’t be able to head departments, another breach of the promises. He also rejected the proposed exclusion of the PIMS from Schedule III.

“We [all PIMS employees] have decided to form a grand health alliance to resist the hospital’s conversion into MTI over the denial of rights and job insecurity,” he said.