Full salaries but no bonuses for staff of private medical colleges and hospitals
More than one lakh doctors, nurses and staff of 69 private medical colleges and hospitals will not get any bonus during the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr, but will get their full salaries.
Bangladesh Private Medical College Association (BPMCA) says the festival bonus was cancelled owing to the 'financial crisis' during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but they retracted an earlier decision to cut 40 percent salary of doctors.
They held a virtual meeting today and decided to give all doctors, nurses and other staff their full salaries, BPMCA President Dr Mubin Khan told The Daily Star.
"However, our decision regarding bonuses remains the same," he said.
Before that, on May 2, BPMCA had said they would pay 60 percent salary for the month of April to doctors (starting from professors to lecturers). They had also said they would not provide festival bonus.
The association back then said they would provide full salaries to all third- and fourth-class employees and the doctors working at hospitals for 24 hours, it said.
The changed decision on salary comes after heavy criticism from many doctors and nurses. The country also has a growing number of doctors -- nearly 550 -- who have been infected with Covid-19.
Many organisations including the likes of Foundation for Doctors' Safety, Rights and Responsibilities (FDSR) criticised BPMCA for deciding not to pay festival bonus.
In a joint statement Dr Abul Hasnat Milton and Dr Sheikh Abdullah Al Mamun, chairman and secretary general (in that order) of FDSR, said "We will not accept such a decision and demand immediate withdrawal of the announcement.
"We will be forced to wage tougher programme if this decision is not withdrawn and will take legal measures against this decision," the statement added.
The Daily Star also contacted a few doctors working at private hospitals who all agreed that authorities of private medical colleges and hospitals are doing them a grave injustice.
Many have said hospital authorities have made profit in the last year and before, but did not share the profits with doctors or nurses.
"I would not ask for the festival bonus if they had shared previous year's profits with us," said Prince Ahmed, a doctor at a private hospital.
Jahirul Haque, another doctor, said BPMCA's claims of a financial crunch is not true.
"There are many private hospitals in the country who are still doing brisk business during the shutdown. There might be few hospitals who are not doing well economically as flow of passengers has reduced there," he said.
WHAT THE ASSOCIATION SAYS
BPMCA president Mubin Khan today told The Daily Star that income at medical colleges has fallen almost 90 percent but no one went for job cuts.
"You can criticise us but we are in a crisis," he said.
The president also said when they decided not to pay full salaries to some doctors, it would have included only 10 to 20 percent of the staff who were not taking part in regular work of the colleges and hospitals.
The association had also appealed to Bangladesh Bank for a stimulus package for medical colleges in crisis.
Just two hours after the conversation with The Daily Star, the president called back and said: "We have held a virtual meeting and have decided to give full salary to all doctors on humanitarian grounds.
"However, our decision regarding bonuses remains the same."
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