Gov’t doctors now free to take private jobs outside office hours
THE Jamaica Medical Doctors’ Association (JMDA) on Friday signed a new agreement with the government which will, among other things, allow junior doctors to operate private practices when they are not rostered for duty in public hospitals.
But they will be closely monitored to determine if the two-year contract should be renewed after it expires, said Dr Grace Allen-Young, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health.
She said the ministry anticipates that openness and fairness will be exercised by all medical practitioners concerned, so that patients will receive adequate care and attention when required by the staff during the hours they are expected to be on duty.
“One of the situations that will allow for us to deal with this in an effective way is through a monitoring mechanism – which will be established jointly between the association and the Ministry of Health – to ensure that it works and that it is reviewed twice a year,” she said. “We expect the association will help us with the monitoring of the performance, because we will not expect anyone who is rostered to be on duty to be elsewhere when they are rostered to be on duty,” Allen-Young added.
Dr Myrton Smith, president of the JMDA, said the doctors have long been lobbying for private practice privileges.
He said the JMDA would therefore seek to develop guidelines within which the doctors will work, in order to guarantee that patient care is not compromised. This, Smith said, would strengthen the existing system under which doctors are evaluated by consultants.
Additionally, under the new wage and fringe benefits package, the doctors will receive a 22 per cent pay hike over two years (2006/2008).
In addition, Smith said the doctors had also agreed to an increase in the emergency duty allowance (the rates doctors are paid for overtime work).
There was also an adjustment in the incentive allowance paid to doctors who were not rostered to do overtime. Previously, a flat rate was paid to doctors, regardless of their qualifications and experience.
But, said Smith: “We felt that it should not be the case that all doctors, regardless of their qualifications and years of service, should get the same incentive allowance.”
According to Smith, “up to a third of our membership are not rostered for emergency duties, and emergency duty represents a significant portion of the take-home pay of the doctors in public service.”
Meanwhile, Fitz Jackson, minister of state in the finance ministry, said he was satisfied with the “tone of the discussions” leading up to the signing of the agreement.
“I am personally encouraged by the manner in which the discussions and the negotiations took place between the Ministry of Finance and the Jamaica Medical Doctors’ Association,” Jackson said. “We have broken ground in some areas we never ventured before, which makes the situation of the medical doctors much better than what obtained before.”
The agreement was signed at the Ministry of Finance
in Kingston.
davidsont@jamaicaobserver.com