WE would like to lend our support to 31 doctors working for the Hospital Pathology Service (HPS) at Queen Mary Hospital who are still fighting for the Hospital Authority-identical pay package which has been granted to university doctors.

It appears that a settlement of the issue is delayed indefinitely pending an agreement on contracts.

Now that the Health and Welfare Branch is transferring its duty of administering hospital services to the Hospital Authority, it has shirked its responsibility in making good an earlier Government promise that the HA-identical package should be awarded toall university hospital doctors.

The doctors at the HPS have waited for almost three years for a fair deal from the Government. No amount of bureaucratic red tape should be allowed to stand in the way of granting them this package. The delay is unfair and eroding morale.