Saudis on their way to rob Punjab of its doctors

Officials from Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health and Defense and Aviation are on their way to lure doctors in Punjab on a recruitment spree, Pakistan Today has learnt. Per details, the Saudi ministries y of Health and the ministry of Defence and Aviation are going to visit Pakistan later this month to recruit doctors for various categories and specialisations including anesthesia, emergency, ICU, internal medicine, health education and pediatrics. Overseas Employment Corporation from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, government of Pakistan has notified the arrival of Saudi officials and has sought applications from interested candidates. Even last year, the Saudi government hired around 2,000 doctors from Pakistan with attractive “perks and privileges” and causing a drastic vacuum in the faculty of teaching institutions and hospitals. Various teaching hospitals in the provincial metropolitan, to date, lack crucial faculty and specialists vital to run teaching institutions and hospitals. Per further details, around 20 vacancies in the prestigious King Edward Medical University, in Children’s Hospital are empty, while the situation is worse in the periphery. Pakistan YDA General Secretary Dr Salman Kazmi said, “The only solution is to further increase the salaries of doctors and bring it at par with the government of India…otherwise the doctors will keep fleeing…without human resource hospitals cannot run…all good doctors will go abroad and only doctors with degrees from China and Russia will remain here for Pakistani public…it is the responsibility of the government to provide free education to people and hence the government should not give it as an excuse for not increasing salaries.” He further said the Saudi government offered around 45000 riyals to a senior professor with free meals and home and two yearly return tickets. “Although they work a lot, but the salary is unmatchable and hence doctors prefer to go abroad,” he added. Better salary packages has been a long standing demand of doctors and last year the doctors shut the province’s public health facilities for over a month over the contentious issue. The Punjab government finally accepted their demands and announced Rs 5 billion package for them. However, this year again doctors are all set to flee again for better packages which the Pakistani government might never become able to match. However, Allama Iqbal Medical College Principal Professor Javaid Akram dispelled the impression that it was a monitory issue. “Pay packages are a very minor issue, it is about job satisfaction and recognition which includes a service structure and other things…the government should devise a policy to consider doctors an asset and to keep them otherwise the situation will keep deteriorating…no one consulted us regarding these issue when we know the problem and we can provide with the solutions as well,” he added.