GOVERNMENT doctors have threatened to go on strike if the Health Ministry does not change its terms of agreement with private doctors who it wants to employ to cover gaps in the public sector.
The public servants are claiming their private colleagues are being offered a far superior package to their own, including better salaries and benefits – something they say they will not stand for.
The issue came to a head after government doctors’ union PASYKI were made aware of the ministry’s proposal to bring over two Cypriot paediatric neurologists, currently employed in the US and UK.
Union vice president Dr Petros Petrides said if allowed to go ahead, the ministry’s proposal would establish a two-tier system, and that although PASYKI did not oppose the contracts as a matter of principle, it deemed the salaries and terms of agreement on offer unacceptable.
“We agreed on contracts with doctors who are needed and are required to fill the gaps at public hospitals, and that the contracts include salaries equal to those of government doctors as well as an allowance for rent, petrol and airline tickets to come and go to visit their families abroad.
However, what has made a huge impression on us is the attempt to give certain doctors annual salaries in the region of £120,000,” Petrides said.
The civil servant questioned why the private doctors warranted such over inflated salaries compared to the average £22,000 earned by government doctors. He also said it had come to the union’s attention that the doctors would receive overtime pay, as well as fees for examining the results of every patient sent for tests.
“This will separate doctors into two tiers: doctors who are overpaid for the same work currently carried out by government doctors,” he said.
Petrides said it was also unfair that the doctors were going to be allowed to work in the private sector as well as for the public sector when by law government doctors were banned from private practice.
Health Minister Charis Charalambous yesterday defended his decision to employ the two doctors and said it had been reached due to the severe shortage of specialised paediatric neurologists.
The minister also denied reports the doctors were being offered salaries of £120,000 and called on PASYKI to put forward alternative solutions if it had any or to simply make clear that they did not want the doctors employed rather than complain about the salary.
Charalambous said: “The ministry has faced the problem of a shortage of paediatric neurologists for years. When I took over the ministry I found over a thousand children with severe mobility and neurological problems.”
He said these children’s parents wanted speedy tests for their children, second opinions, and assurances that they would have a doctor whenever necessary.
“[But] in the public sector there is only one doctor, who is excellent, but she is the only one and doesn’t have the time to see the children as often as needed or to the extent needed,” he said.
Charalambous said that was why the ministry had taken the initiative to track down two Cypriot doctors with the right specialisation and had found one in American and the other in England.
The minister said both doctors were professionally well established in their respective countries, earning salaries in excess of £100,000 a year.
“We thought to give them a contract for three, four, five years maximum to employ their services.”
Charalambous said the result had been a contract including the minimum of their demands with salaries less than half of that quoted by the government doctors’ union.
“At this point we’ve simply drawn up a plan and nothing has been signed. We’ve sent a copy to the House Health Committee chairwoman, PASYDI [the civil servants union], and PASYKI and are waiting for their comments,” he said.
He added that the union given no answer to the ministry’s proposal despite Petrides claims it had repeatedly informed the minister of their position.
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