JPMC young doctors protest three months without pay

Young doctors at Karachi’s Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) staged a protest on Thursday over three months of unpaid salaries, blaming the hospital administration and the Sindh government for the delay.

The doctors gathered outside the hospital’s Outpatient Department (OPD) Complex and chanted slogans against the administration, The Express Tribune reported. They said they had kept working despite not being paid, and accused officials of passing responsibility from one office to another.

“The hospital administration and the government have treated us like a football,” the doctors said. They said the hospital had told them to approach the Sindh government, while government officials sent them back to the hospital.

A new payment system stalls

The delay began after the provincial government changed how house officers are paid in May. Under the old system, hospitals received funds and paid salaries by bank cheque. The new system transfers money directly into doctors’ bank accounts.

Officials said the change required extra documents, including copies of doctors’ computerised national identity cards (CNICs) and details of past cheques, to be submitted to the Sindh Accountant General (AG) office. Hospital administrations said they had sent the data and that the hold-up was at the AG office.

Warning of wider protests

Sindh Young Doctors Association President Dr Shahid Awan told the newspaper that if the salaries were not released within the next few days, doctors would widen their protest, including demonstrations outside the hospital’s administration block and on roads.

“We demand the immediate payment of our outstanding salaries,” Awan said, adding that the matter should be settled without further delay, whether it lay with the Sindh government or the AG office.

The doctors also called for a pay rise, saying they had not received one since 2020.

What the health department says

On September 30, the Sindh Health Department said the delay was not due to negligence by hospital managements. It blamed the rollout of a new direct-payment policy and the procedures needed to open vendor accounts at the AG office.

The department said:

• under a new federal policy, house officers’ salaries are to be paid straight into their bank accounts rather than by hospital cheques
• hospitals had submitted the required forms, identity card copies and cheque details to the AG office on time
• the process was delayed because the AG office then asked for more documents and data
• opening the vendor accounts was in its final stages, and payment was expected soon

Given the financial hardship faced by the doctors, the department said, “the matter was being treated as a priority”. The Express Tribune said the AG office declined to comment when contacted.

Why it matters

The dispute is not limited to one hospital: The Express Tribune has earlier reported that house officers at public hospitals had gone 100 days without pay. Until the vendor accounts are opened and the backlog is cleared, the doctors say they will keep up the pressure, and a wider protest would bring the dispute out of the hospital and onto the streets.

This article draws on reporting by The Express Tribune.