Minister gets annoyed during Senate body meeting

ISLAMABAD: Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar got annoyed on Thursday during the meeting of Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination on the remarks of committee chairman Senator Sajjad Toori regarding raise in the fee of private medical colleges.

 During the meeting, the minister sought approval from the committee for increasing fee of private medical and dental colleges. On this the chairman said that they were the representatives of the poor, so how could they approve raise in the fee? He asked for a comprehensive briefing to the committee on expenditure of private medical colleges then they will think about the fee. 

Senator Toori said that students do not know which medical college is registered, adding that the committee should be told that which college is running into loss. Why do you want to keep the poor at bay by raising fee of private medical colleges? Why are you stressing the raise? Why does it trouble you so much? His remarks annoyed the minister who said if you use such words for us I will not attend the committee meeting in future.

The chairman asked the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to take notice of charging heavy fees by some private medical and dental colleges. The committee urged the PMDC that strict measures should be adopted to bound private medical and dental colleges to charge fees in accordance with PMDC formula. The chairman said that the PMDC should monitor such medical colleges, charging heavy fees like Agha Khan, Be Well Hospital, Shifa International, Hameed Latif Hospital Lahore etc.

Saira Afzal Tarar said that there was strict monitoring on medical and dental colleges and thorough inspections were conducted in 12 new medical and dental colleges. She said that despite being well aware of the non-registration of medical colleges, parents are still admitting their children in these illegal colleges. She said that there was a need to develop new rules for registration of new medical and dental colleges. She said that the committee should recommend early completion of registration process of new medical and dental colleges. 

CEO Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) Muhammad Aslam said that the decision of price fixing of stent will be finalised within two months. He said that the DRAP has made online system for registration of new companies. He added that new companies can take advantage of this facility of DRAP. 

Officials from the PMDC said that Shifa International Hospital has taken additional charges of Rs4,500 from the applicants for entry test of Shifa International Medical College, which was against the law. They directed the hospital administration to return the additional amount taken from parents. 

A citizen Nausheen Inam claimed that Shifa International Hospital officials charged Rs10,600 by doing unwanted diagnostic tests of her child and demanded to take notice of such policies of the hospitals.  Senator Ayesha Raza Khan urged for giving support to the Ministry of National Health Services to control illegal medical and dental colleges. Senator Attique Sheikh said that private medical and dental colleges were not implementing the policy of giving seats on scholarship base.