AMMAN — Resident doctors are on the frontlines of hospitals:
having finished their formal medical education, they examine patients, diagnose
conditions, and assist in surgeries. But in some hospitals in
Jordan, they
aren’t paid for their work. They’re trying to change that.
اضافة اعلان
Medical residents in Jordan have started a social media
campaign calling for an end to the unpaid residency program. They’re using the
hashtags “my salary, my right,” “doctors not slaves,” and “you left us” to call
for a change in the working conditions that they say endanger patients and
drive qualified doctors out of the country.
Residents have completed six years of medical training and a
low-paid internship year before they apply for a five to six year residency
position in a certain specialty, according to Abdullah Nimer, a senior medical
student at the
University of Jordan who previously authored a study on burnout
among residents. “Residency means that you work as a doctor,” he told Jordan
News. “You’re working with the specialist. ... He needs you to manage his
patients, to give medication, to help him in operations, to do clinics.”
He explained that universities in Jordan benefit financially
from enrolling a high number of medical students — which results in a surplus
of medical graduates with not enough paid resident seats. “The seats are very
limited,” he said. There is a “huge supply and no demand for graduates.”
Hospitals then argue that residents receive training, and are thus trainees,
not employees. He pointed out that many of the residents who take unpaid seats
have to take on side jobs, in addition to working up to 100 hours per week.
“Hospitals actually depend on residents more than they
depend on consultants and specialists,” Nimer said. “The first one you see in
the ER is a resident, and the one who discharges you is a resident.”
“For me personally, I do not feel I will get any job
security under a medical system that doesn’t pay residents well,” he added. “I
don’t think any patient should feel secure in hospitals that do not pay their
residents.”
Riyad Sharqawi, general manager assistant at the Specialty
Hospital in Amman, said that at his hospital, residents all receive a full
salary alongside medical insurance. He criticized the unpaid system, saying
“It’s very important to pay for this because they’re working,” he told Jordan
News. “And usually they have hard work,” including being on-call multiple times
a week and working up to 100 hours per week.
The unpaid residencies “must be stopped immediately,” said
Ahmad Awad, director of the Phenix Center for Economics and Informatics Studies
and Jordan Labor Watch, in an interview with Jordan News. “The private sector
always, if there is no accountability for them, would like to increase their
profits,” he said.
Fresh graduates, he explained, are eager to obtain
specialties, which will make them more employable — so eager that they will
accept unpaid positions so long as they receive that specialty training.
One of the organizers of the campaign, pediatric specialist
Ghaith Abdallah Al-Aryan, estimated that around 20 to 30 percent of residents
are unpaid. “They are manipulating the labor law, they are using it to say that
these residents are trainees,” he told Jordan News. At the same time, the
teaching hospitals that take on residents are granted tax exemptions, he said —
which should allow for them to pay their residents.
He explained that in addition to pay, the campaign is
calling for there to be a cutoff of the maximum hours residents can work per
week (like the 80-hour limit implemented in the US), better treatment of
residents by their superiors, and venues for residents to voice their
complaints.
The working conditions also affect patients. “Burnout
reflects on their care of their patients,” said Aryan. Previously, Jordan News
reported that eight in ten medical residents in the Kingdom experience burnout,
a state of continuous exhaustion that can lead to medical errors.
Maisam Akroush, a practicing physician and member of both
the Jordanian Medical Association and Jordanian Medical Council, which is responsible
for training interns and residents, described the practice as “unethical,
immoral, and will be reflected by the service given by these doctors.”
She pointed out that some residents will be nearing the age
of 30 and are still unpaid, which may prevent them from taking other steps in
their lives like starting a family.
She called for the council to refuse to recognize hospitals
unless they guarantee a certain number of paid doctors for each number of beds
in each specialty.
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