The Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued notices to the health department, the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and others on a petition seeking stipend for doctors of physical therapy (DPTs) during their one-year house job.
Dr Sumaiya Kazi and other petitioners said that despite the notified policy by the regulatory authority, DPTs are not being paid stipend during their one-year house job.
They said the JPMC had started its first DPT House Job programme in 2018, but it was unpaid, and since then many DPT graduates across Sindh have completed or are completing their house job without any stipend.
They stressed that this is in violation of the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) policy circular which recognises DPT as a doctoral-level professional degree.
They said they are working as DPT house officers without stipend at the JPMC, adding that their job description and rotation are the same as the MBBS house officers, who are being paid monthly stipend, along with other facilities.
The health department had also issued a notification for the payment of stipend to interns of hospital-based 52-week internship under the Pakistan Nursing & Midwifery Council guidelines, they added.
They said physiotherapists working at Sindh government hospitals had also been granted health professional allowance and special healthcare allowance on the SHC’s orders, adding that the allowances had been granted on a par with MBBS doctors, recognising the professional importance of physiotherapists.
They also said physical therapy is an essential segment of modern healthcare system, and it covers basic parameters of healing sciences that is preventive, promotive, diagnostic, rehabilitative and curative.
DPTs are being forced to work like bonded labour, but the government is legally bound to implement the HEC-approved curriculum and policy recommendations, and not to deprive DPT house officers of their equitable entitlement of paid house job, they added.
They requested the court to declare that DPT graduates are entitled to a mandatory one-year paid house job, and direct the government to immediately start stipend house job positions for DPT graduates in line with HEC policy recommendations at all public hospitals, including the JPMC, and other teaching hospitals and their affiliated universities.
After the preliminary hearing of the petition, an SHC division bench headed by Justice Adnanul Karim Memon issued notices to the health department, the JPMC and others, telling them for file their comments on March 11.
