Doctors ask for five-fold pay hike
October 24, 2011, 8:59 pmBy Emanthi Marambe
The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) yesterday insisted on a five-fold basic salary increase from this year’s Budget.
Addressing a media briefing at the GMOA head office in Colombo, GMOA President Dr. Anurudda Padeniya said that government doctors expected a salary increase based on the proposals of the National Salary Policy drafted in 2006.
Dr. Padeniya said that a government doctor currently drew a salary of between Rs. 26,000 and Rs.42,000 while a specialist doctor received a basic salary of Rs. 42,000. "If the government is unable to grant a substantial salary increment to doctors, one cannot prevent them from leaving the public sector for the private sector or going abroad," he said.
Five years had lapsed since the introduction of the national salary policy but no salary revision, based on this policy, had been granted to doctors so far, Dr Padeniya said. "We hope that the government would take action to grant our due increments in the forthcoming budget," he said.Representatives of the GMOA had held talks with the government two months ago on the issue of their salary increments and the authorities had agreed to grant their request, he said.
Dr. Padeniya said that a doctor was entitled to a monthly fuel allowance of Rs. 21,000 and that had been approved in 2008 but its implementation had been delayed causing much inconvenience to doctors working in remote areas, including the North and the East.
Dr. Padeniya pointed out that the doctors would no longer be able to work in the public sector hospitals if the government continued to ignore them and delayed their due salary increments. "It is inevitable that the doctors will either move to private practicing or go abroad for better income," he said.
The Budget Proposals are due to be presented to Parliament on Nov 22.
