Decrease in share of medical professionals in tests withdrawn, PHC told

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa secretary health has informed the Peshawar High Court (PHC) that the government has withdrawn a notification regarding decrease in share of doctors and paramedics in laboratories’ tests of the government hospitals.

The petitioners claimed that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government issued the notification after brawl between KP Health Minister Dr Hisham Inamullah Khan, Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH)’s Board of Governors (BoG) Chairman Dr Nausherwan Burki and doctors at the KTH.

At the previous hearing, the court had summoned the secretary health in the court to explain why the interim order of the PHC has been misconstrued by the authorities as writ petition got finally dismissed on the basis of maintainability.

When a division bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim started hearing the case, Secretary Health Dr Farooq Jamil submitted that the notification regarding decrease in share of doctors and paramedics in laboratories’ tests of the government hospitals has been withdrawn.

After hearing this, the court disposed of the petition. However, the bench also asked the secretary health that Khyber Teaching Hospital’s air-conditioner plant has been non-functional, due to which the patients were suffering. The bench told the secretary that he should visit the hospital and supervise it properly in order to facilitate the patients.

The bench directed the secretary health to fix the air-conditioner plant of the Khyber Teaching Hospital within two weeks and submit a progress report in the office of additional registrar judicial.

The petition had been filed by Dr Malik Zeb Khan and others, serving in Hayatabad Medical Complex and Institute of Kidney Diseases in pathology and radiology departments along with paramedics of these institutes. Mian Muhibullah Kakakhel and Saifullah Muhib, counsel for the petitioners, submitted that the petitioners have challenged decrease in their share in laboratories’ tests in MRI and CT Scan and others, which was previously given to them after deduction of 5 percent depreciation and 5 percent toolkits charges in 100 percent. In rest of 90 percent, they said, the petitioners’ share was 25 percent and paramedics used to get 12 percent. Recently, they argued, the secretary health decreased share of doctors to 12 percent and paramedics 10 percent out of 45 percent divisible pool without taking them into confidence.

The lawyers informed the bench that this notification has been passed after grudges of doctors with Dr Nausherwan Burki, who is a cousin of Prime Minister Imran Khan. The tussle started when a provincial minister’s bodyguard thrashed a senior surgeon in KTH.