MTI hospitals to provide services for six days a week

PESHAWAR: The Policy Board has decided that the nine tertiary care hospitals of Medical Teaching Institutions (MTIs) will remain open for six days a week to better serve the patients.

Talking to The News, chairman Policy Board Prof Dr Ziaul Islam said that hospitals would start their operations from 8am and continue providing services to the patients till 2pm.

He, however, said the medical and dental colleges would operate for five days a week, adding that the decision was made at a meeting of the Policy Board on Tuesday

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has nine MTIs, including Lady Reading Hospital, Khyber Teaching Hospital, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar Institute of Cardiology, Mardan Medical Complex, Qazi Hussain Ahmad Medical Complex Nowshera, Bacha Khan Medical Complex Swabi, Ayub Medical Complex Abbottabad, Khalifa Gul Nawaz Medical Complex Bannu and Mufti Mahmood Medical Complex Dera Ismail Khan. They were previously operating for five days a week.

Dr Ziaul Islam said that the aim behind the decision was to ensure uninterrupted services to patients in the public sector hospitals. Senior officials said that the government had been spending billions of rupees every year on these hospitals, adding the hospitals used to remain two days a week.

An official of the Health Department told The News that the government had been receiving complaints from patients and independent sources that the majority of the doctors disappeared from hospitals before Friday prayers and returned to work on Monday.

“The government is spending billions of rupees on the MTIs but they have been unable to deliver accordingly,” said an official of the Health Department on condition of anonymity.

A major chunk of funds is being spent on salaries, as some hospital employees are highly paid and there are dozens of managers in different departments.

Previously, duty hours in the MTIs were from 8am to 4pm, but these hospitals would operate from Monday to Friday.

Also, the Policy Board decided to bring uniformity in packages of employees in MTIs and promote all of the faculty members in accordance with the rules of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PM&DC).

The Policy Board had received complaints that there was a major difference in salaries of the employees in MTIs, particularly deans and different directors, managers and the nursing staff.

The hospitals would frequently advertise multiple positions as employees would quit to join other institutions for better salary package.

The Policy Board had written to all the MTIs to share with them details of the packages they were giving to their employees, particularly the deans, medical directors, hospital directors, nursing directors, directors finance as well as managers.

“We have invited chairpersons of all the MTIs along with their deans to listen to their problems. Before the meeting, we have sent them letters to come up with proposals so we can find solutions to the problems,” said Dr Ziaul Islam.

He said they would facilitate the MTIs and guide how to improve patient care and resolve genuine issues of the doctors and other employees.

The BoG of LRH had ignored letters of the Policy Board and wanted the board to hold the meeting after the February 8 general election. The BoG, however, sent its member, Dr Khalid Khanzada to the meeting and informed the Policy Board about LRH and its issues.

According to sources, some of the chairpersons expected that PTI may come into power so they didn’t want to make any decision that would annoy its leadership.

Also, another important issue that came under consideration was long delayed promotions of the faculty members in the MTIs.

The Policy Board decided to promote the faculty members as per the rules of the PM&DC but according to need based assessment.

The MTIs had made it mandatory for all the employees to join the institution-based practice (IBP) if they wanted to get promoted. It was misinterpreted as only MTI employees were bound to follow these rules.

Another important section of the rules misinterpreted by certain people was about appointing senior most faculty members as heads of their respective units.

Interestingly, some of the BoG members and chairmen were unaware of the MTI Act, rules and regulations. They shared wrong information with the Policy Board, saying that only the MTI employees can become heads of units. They didn’t differentiate between the head of units and chairman of the department.