President DAK Dr Nisar ul Hassan in a communiqué said the decision to raise the salary would bring huge relief to hundreds of resident doctors.
Finance Minister yesterday in a meeting of the Pay Anomaly Committee decided to bring the stipend of GMC resident doctors at par with their counterparts in SKIMS.
Dr Hassan said while at SKIMS, a postgraduate is paid Rs 54,000 per month, at GMC it was a paltry, Rs 24,000.
“The monthly salary of a senior resident at SKIMS is Rs 57,000 while at GMC it was just Rs 35,000,” he added.
He said the doctors at GMC work as much as their conterparts at SKIMS and the pay disparity was unjustified.The difference in monthly stipend was having a knocking down effect on the functioning of GMC and was taking a heavy toll on patient care.
Many doctors were preferring their postgraduation courses at SKIMS because of low wages at medical colleges.
Dr Hassan said the resident doctors are the backbone of tertiary care hospitals and they play a pivotal role in patient care at these crucial life-saving assets. The system at these health institutions is running because resident doctors work round the clock.
He said we are hopeful that with the implementation of 7th pay commission, the pay of doctors in JK will be brought at par with their counterparts in rest of the country.
“The entry level faculty member at AIIMS draws a salary of Rs 1,21,000 per month which is three times the pay of his or her counterpart at GMC who is paid minicule, Rs 47,000, he said
adding that faculty at AIIMS, in addition get learning resource allowance, cost of secretarial staff, expenditure on international conferences and research.”
He further said that poor wages are responsible for migration of highly qualified doctors which has severly affected key areas in healthcare.
“We have lost the best trained doctors to bad pay and nothing is being done to hold back these expensively trained doctors,” said Dr Hassan.