The original article can be found in: The Gleaner By Tyrone Reid
Disgruntled doctors have dragged the Government to court over the thorny reclassification exercise being undertaken in the public-health sector.
In a memo to junior doctors last week, Dr Dane Miller, president of the Jamaica Medical Doctors’ Association (JMDA), noted that come October, the Supreme Court will initiate a judicial review of the reclassification exercise which dates back to 2005 and which has been the source of much unrest in the public health sector.
“We have gone ahead as mandated by the membership earlier and got permission for a judicial review of the entire reclassification in the Supreme Court as this, we believe, is one of the ways to get the change we desire. Our days in Court are October 14 to 18, 2013. Please prepare to attend,” Miller urged his colleagues.
This court battle will represent the latest showdown in an ongoing duel between the Government and its doctors largely over pay and working conditions.
According to the memo, the court action was spawned by the Government’s refusal to accept proposals placed on the table by the JMDA.
“We have received a letter from Minister (Horace) Dalley advising us that the Cabinet has rejected our proposal for changes to be made to the reclassification exercise.
“They want to set up a review tribunal, which, in our opinion, will be able to deal with minor issues but not with our major issue,” read a section of the internal memo.
The JMDA has declined to offer any comment on its court action.
“Concerning the matter of judicial review by the Supreme Court, we are unable to make any comments at this time. It is currently a very delicate matter. The process is currently in a very neonatal period and any further information will have to be given at a later date,” said Dr Sajeevika Amarakoon, first vice-president of the JMDA.major grouse
Amarakoon insisted that the major grouse of the doctors is not with how much nurses are being paid as a result of completion of their phase of the reclassification exercise, which resulted in certain categories of nurses being paid more than some junior doctors.
“I would like to state that the Jamaica Medical Doctors’ Association does not have any objection to nurses being paid appropriately for their hours of work.
“We believe that every member of the health team should be duly remunerated for their responsibilities,” Amarakoon told The Sunday Gleaner.
However, insiders have told our news team that the doctors’ major issue is what they see as the need for the restoration of “relative relationships by placing doctors in the pay band that would appropriately reflect their status of being team leaders”.
According to a source close to the reclassification exercise, some junior doctors are being paid a basic salary of $77,000 per month, which means that some registered nurses and midwives are being remunerated at a higher level than some doctors.
Earlier this year, health care delivery in public facilities was greatly hampered as a “mystery illness” caused several doctors to stay off the job for a few days.
In some instances, more than 60 per cent of the doctors failed to show up for work.The protest action was reportedly triggered by a dispute caused by the health reclassification exercise.
At that time, the JMDA in tandem with the Association of Government Medical Consultants (AGMC) announced that their representatives had a long meeting with Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson, and Dalley, the minister with responsibility for the public service, where they outlined the many issues affecting the two doctors’ groups.
At that meeting, the medical groups proposed solutions to the most pressing and grievous problems.
“After these talks, there is some renewed hope and faith as there has been a commitment to deal with the issues expeditiously,” the JMDA and the AGMC declared in a joint press release issued as the doctors returned to work.
Those hopes have been dashed, it seems, as the matter is now before the Supreme Court.
