ISLAMABAD: At least 1500 medical officers (MOs) and thousands of nurses employed at five hospitals in Islamabad and Rawalpindi have been reverted to their basic pay scales since the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) has failed to formulate a service structure for these employees despite the passage ofoverthree decades.

In the absence of the service structure, the finance division in 1991 decided to upgrade the pay grade ofthese medical professionals, including paramedics. According to documents, it was decided that 40 per cent of MOs, after time scale, would be placed in BPS-18, then 10pc of them would be placed in BPS-19 and eventually 10pc of them would be placed in BPS-20.

However, now the Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) has downgraded the pay scale and also decided to recover the `additional money` paid to the hospital staffers `without any promotion` in the absence of the service structure.

A doctor, who is apparently in BPS-18butwhosesalarywasreduced to BPS-17 last month, said that the word `placement` was used instead of `promotion` so the AGPR and the Ministry of Finance do not consider it a promotion and decided to reduce the salaries of doctors and nurses.

`This year, Dr Aliya Mushtaq, an officer of BPS-20, who was appointedat a dispensary of the AGPR was retired. The AGPR prepared her case for retirement benefits as an officer of BPS-17. Now Dr Mushtaq has filed a case in the Federal Service Tribunal (FST),` he said, adding that Charge Nurse Kausar, who retired in BPS-18 earlier this year, also faced a similar situation after the AGPR prepared her case as a BPS-16 employee.

`She is running from pillar to post to get benefits of her grade in which she retired,` he said.

`We doctors and nurses of five hospitals the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Polyclinic, the National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine (NIRM), Federal General Hospital in Chak Shahzad, and TB Hospital in Rawalpindi have been suffering,` he said. `I feel the Ministry of Finance and AGPR`s stances are right since the onus is on the health ministry which failed toformulate service structure,` he said.

`3 decades without service structure` In 2008, the finance ministry wrote a letter to the health ministry highlighting the issue pertaining to the service structure, according to a document. Similarly, In November 2015, the Establishment Division in a memo said that the `grant of higher pay scale cannot be an alternate for regular promotion`. A document of the AGPR, dated March 2022, stated that the amount paid to the MOs should be withdrawn.

A senior doctor, requesting anonymity, said that it was unfortunate that the pay scales of doctors were reverted even from BPS-20. `In 1991, the placement policy was introduced hoping that the health ministry would formulate service structure soon, but unfortunately the service structure could not be preparedeven after 30 years,` the doctor rued.

`Salaries and increments of MOs were increased over the years but now the AGPR has decided to recover the financial benefits,` he said. The medical professional claimed that the officials in the health ministry told them that it would take 10 years to formulate the service structure for doctors and nurses.

Another medical officer said that usually, the provinces follow the federal government but in this particular case, the federal health ministry can follow the provinces and adapt their service structure for MOs.

`In provinces, an MO is promoted as a senior medical officer (SMO) in BPS-18, then SMO is promoted as a chief medical officer (CMO) in BPS19, and finally CMO becomes a principal medical officer (PMO) in BPS20. In the federal capital, status of MOs does not change with the placement in the next scale so the AGPR isnot willing to pay them enhanced salaries anymore. Unfortunately, the health ministry is not willing to do its own job,` he said. He said that a majority of the charge nurses were also suffering, as just a few were promoted to BPS-17 as head nurses, and others were moved to the next scales.

`Now nurses are also facing the same issue,` he said.

Special Secretary Health Mirza Nasiruddin Mashhood, while talking to Dawn, said that he was `shocked` to hear that the health ministry did not formulate the service structure during the past three decades.

`However I have decided to look into it and will ensure that the service structure of doctors and nurses would be formulated at the earliest. I will also contact the AGPR and the Ministry of Finance requesting them to restore the salaries of doctors. The ministry will formulate the service structure of doctors in the meantime,` he said.