Legal battle brews in ministry over doctors’ vacation guard allowance

• The Resolution 35/2021 requires department heads at the hospital and center heads in the health region to prepare monthly police lists. These lists must include names, job titles, and actual hours worked by those assigned to guard duties.

The Ministry of Health’s decision from June 2022, mandating the payment of guard and training allowances to doctors in human medicine and dentistry during leave, faces controversy. This may lead to suspension following a regulatory authority’s note deeming the decision legally suspended.

Informed health sources revealed to Al-Rai newspaper that “one of the supervisory authorities had considered the decision to be suspended by force of law and had previously requested the ministry to present its memorandum of objection regarding the suspension of the decision to the Council of Ministers for a decision.”

The sources stated, “It is likely that, in the event a new decision is not issued regulating the disbursement mechanism, we will return to Resolution 35/2021.

This resolution stipulates that the heads of departments in the hospital and the heads of centers in the health region, whose work is governed by the police system, will prepare monthly police lists regularly. These lists include the names and job titles, along with the number of actual hours worked by the person assigned to guard duties. After approval by the hospital director and the head of the primary health care unit in the region, a copy of the list is sent to the director of the health district, the directors of the central departments, and the payroll department to which the employee belongs.”

Sources stated that “the decision specified that the Undersecretary of the Ministry should amend the periodic leave form and include a clause that records the number of guarding hours scheduled in accordance with the decisions of the Civil Service Council that the employee performed during the month, provided that the full guarding allowance will be disbursed if the minimum guarding hours stipulated in the decisions are met.”