NATIONAL DOCTORS ASSOCIATION SETS RECORD STRAIGHT

by DR JAMES NAIPAO

National Doctors Association negotiates with the Department of Health and Department of Personal Management for good salary packages for its members and doctors working in the public health systems including health tertiary institutions and departments such as School of Medicine and Health Science, UPNG and Defence Force, respectively. The recent award signed (2014-2016) is being implemented while some are yet to be implemented.

Award signed is a legal document, and all public health agencies, public health institutions and departments employing doctors must honour the award to its fullest.

The award does not talk about appraisal as a conduit to the implementation of the award. If hospitals are doing that then it is wrong. Appraisal is designed to do three things; (a) to monitor workers so that workers salary points can be maintained or increased, (b) to asses whether the worker keeps his or her job when the term of the employment expires, and (c) to promote a worker to a new job above his or her current job.

The last three awards signing to date including the current one has overwhelmingly reduced the attrition rate of national doctors leaving for greener pastures. The government of Papua New Guinea must be happy on this one and give credit where it is due.

To the connotation that doctors are highly paid is ludicrous. In comparison to other countries, Papua New Guinea Doctors are lowly paid. I am in Israel now, and its doctors are highly paid here. For example, a resident medical doctor is paid ten thousand American dollars a month. Israel has twenty thousand doctors working in Israel that has a population 8 million people. A resident doctor in PNG gets close to two thousand kina a month after tax. A specialist medical doctor that has taken him/her 27-32 years of his/her education life to be a specialist medical doctor does not even get a good package. Sadly, the specialist doctor is paid 30% of what is paid to the first year Resident Medical Doctor in Israel in a month. Do you call that a high pay?? The doctor to population ratio in PNG is one doctor to 17,000 people. The government of PNG and people must salute the doctors for serving the government of PNG with dignity and distinction.

In the Public Health System, a doctor must be located in the level four to level seven hospitals, and that is at the district hospital and upwards as outlined in the current National Health Service Standards. Provincial Hospitals and the Provincial Health Authorities must create positions at the district hospitals. The only province that has done that is Enga Province. To attract doctors at the district hospital, administrators/hospital board/hospital management can give extra incentives to attract doctors. This is mentioned in the National Doctors Award. All young doctor wanting to do post-graduate training will now have to work in a district hospital for a year before being accepted for post-graduate training. All district hospitals must be technically equipped so the doctor present can work as a doctor there.

In the medical world, a medical doctor graduate gets a bachelor of medicine and bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) or MD. It is a 4-5 year course. In places like USA, you must have a first degree first before you attempt the MBBS program. Divine Word University is starting a new rural doctors program and soon Enga Provincial Government will introduce a medical school once its new hospital is built. Doctor training in all medical schools in the world graduate its candidate with a MBBS or MD, and are trained to work anywhere in the world. The School of Medicine and Health Sciences (formerly Medical Faculty) graduate doctors in the MBBS program, and at present 37% of these graduates are working overseas and in the private sector carrying the flag of PNG and the School of Medicine and Health Sciences with distinction. Training of doctors to suit the local need or flavour is not right. The post-graduate Rural Masters Programme instituted by the SMHS is a good programme intended for the rural setting. All doctors trained in PNG must get a undergraduate degree in MBBS that is exportable.

School of Medicine and Health Science (SMHS) must be acknowledged for training doctors in the MBBS and Dentistry program. It is about time, the government fully resource the SMHS to increase the doctor output that are internationally compatible, and has been the tradition to date.

All hospitals in the country must be fully equipped and resourced so that a doctor can deliver to expectation.

Lastly, any developments that happens in the country will be tested over time, but the human resource (employees) must not be tested. The fundamental growth of a nation or an institution is 100% vested on the workforce. So employers must not play marbles with the workforce. This must be known outright flat across.

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