By exodus of medical specialists from the state sector is to escalate, the Association of Medical Specialists (AMS) says.
There was always a shortage of medical specialists in the system, but that gap increased rapidly due to the economic crisis, the AMS said in a media statement.
“Shortage was mostly created both by the exodus of medical specialists from the state sector (migration or joining the non-state sector) and by failure to return after overseas training, the AMS said.
“The disparity in total remuneration received by state medical specialists when compared to parallel grades in the government sector is mainly due to the fact that certain allowances like transport and other service-specific allowances for medical specialists were placed at much lower level.
“For example, the mandatory out-of-hours and offsite on-call duties performed by state sector medical specialists were not recognized for suitable remuneration, and even the onsite hours on-call duties were remunerated only after compiling lengthy daily entries and monthly form filling.”
The essential non-clinical administrative work done by medical specialists was also not subjected to any service-specific allowance, and the combined disturbances, availability, and transport (DAT) allowance paid was much less than the transport allowance alone paid to similar categories in the state sector, AMS has said.
“AMS initiated and conducted several discussions with the President, Minister of Health, the officers of the presidential secretariat, and senior health officials where decisions were taken in favour of medical specialists, and some of those decisions were rightly included as budget proposals in the 2024 budget speech.
