DOCTORS are essential. So why aren't they being paid fairly?
The issue arises given the emergence, on December 1, of a petition calling on Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh to address outstanding salary negotiations.
'We work tirelessly to provide healthcare to citizens, yet our voices have not been heard,' says the document, which was published by the group known as the Northwest Doctors Association (NWDA).
According to the NWDA, doctors are currently subject to pay dating to 2015, which only reflects a bargaining period up to 2013.
Meanwhile, the Medical Professionals Association of TT (MPATT), the de facto negotiating body for doctors, is in 'disarray.' It seems MPATT has had no leadership for almost a decade.
These disclosures, if true, are startling.
They cry out for intervention by the Cabinet, regional health authorities and the relevant representative organisations.
It is astonishing that a group of doctors had to start an online campaign like this.
Weren't doctors the unsung heroes of the covid19 pandemic?
Weren't they deemed worthy of a special, one-off bonus, costing $210 million, for their sterling work during that time by the government?
Did Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram not receive the Order of the Republic of TT, this nation's highest award?
Why must members of the same profession be today begging for bucks?
There is something sick about a system of salary negotiation for public sector workers that sees physicians forced into taking this extraordinary step.
More so, a time when politicians are poised to push through SRC pay hikes for themselves.
But how the terms and conditions of medical professionals should be reviewed should not be politicised.
Nor should it be considered from an ahistorical perspective.
We think of doctors - along with lawyers and engineers - as being close to the top of the pecking order of society.
However, their industrial relations travails have been endless.
Consider this: section 67 of the Industrial Relations Act forbids these individuals from striking. A doctor who protests is liable to prison.
Thus, the role played by bodies like MPATT, as recognised bargaining units, is indispensable.
Yet, over the decades, much kangkatang has befallen such entities when it comes to the thorny issue of representation.
At various stages, organisations such as the TT Medical Association, then a medical arm within the PSA, then MPATT have lobbied on behalf of workers, sometimes working at cross purposes or coming into each other's crosshairs.
Like the rest of the country, doctors should sacrifice. And their quality of service should be high.
But because their compensation is not being updated and because they face harder and harder working conditions, many talents are leaving. Some are migrating. Others are going private.
This isn't right.
It's time to address doctors' plight.
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