PIMS PG trainees get stipend in advance

Islamabad : For the first time, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, the capital city's largest government hospital, has paid its postgraduate trainees the monthly stipend in advance.

These doctors, commonly called PGs, have also got unpaid amount of money. The PIMS pays postgraduate trainees, who total around 650, the Rs72,000 stipend each on a monthly basis. They however didn’t get the April payment, which was due on May 1, due to the unavailability of funds, an insider told ‘The News’.

He said the finance ministry had released around Rs67 million for the payment of stipend to the postgraduate trainee doctors few days ago, while the Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue had sent their cheques to the hospital.

He said the cheques had been given away to the trainee doctors. When contacted, PIMS Executive Director Dr Raja Amjad Mehmood confirmed the distribution of the May-June salary cheques to the postgraduate trainees and dubbed it an ‘Eid gift’ for them.

He said the advance payment of salary to PGs had happened for the first time. The PIMS chief also claimed that the hospital regularly paid the Rs40,000 monthly stipend to each of around 120 house officers.