Minister accused of ignoring private practice of dean

PESHAWAR: The Young Doctors Association (YDA) has accused Khyber Pakhtun-khwa Health Minister Taimur Jhagra of ignoring private practice of the dean of Gajju Khan Medical College, Swabi.

The YDA claimed that Dr Shamsur Rahman was running his private clinic in sheer violation of the Medical Teaching Institution Reforms Act 2015.

Under the law, a dean or a medical director, once selected in any Medical Teaching Institution (MTI), was not allowed to run private clinics outside respective institutions. In MTI, certain key position holders, including dean, medical and hospital director are paid heavy stipends up to Rs600,000 in addition to getting a brand new car and other privileges.

In return, they had to shift their private clinics to the hospitals and create a conducive environment for the remaining faculty members to join the institution-based private practice (IBP).

The basic idea of the MTI system was to strengthen medical and teaching institutions to generate revenue and reduce dependence on the government and Health department.

Besides dean and MD, it is mandatory for all the doctors selected as chairpersons of departments to join IBP.

In this particular case, YDA has raised Prof Shamsur Rahman’s private practice and termed it a blatant violation of the MTI law.

Since Prof Shamsur Rahman is Dean Gajju Khan Medical College, Swabi, the law doesn’t allow him to do private practice outside the institution.

The YDA also shared the prescription of his private clinic of July 16, 2021 and asked Taimur Jhagra, who is holding the health ministry as an additional charge, whether he would take action against Prof Shamsur Rahman, a physician by profession, who is head of the medicine department.

“What will be the stance of the KP government regarding Dr Shamsur Rahman Dean Gajju Khan Medical College? He never treats patients in OPD and regularly goes to his private clinic,” YDA stated.

The dean is stated to be the brother of a BoG member.

Some of the doctors said how the dean would ask other consultants to join IBP when he himself was violating the law.

The YDA members took to Twitter to raise this issue and tagged Taimur Jhagra.

The doctors said it was strange when Taimur Jhagra took note of private practice of Director Institute of Kidney Diseases Prof Dr Sultan Zafar and allegedly forced the Board of Governors (BoG), headed by a retired bureaucrat Sahibzada Saeed to fire the senior nephrologist after the issue was raised on social media.

“Where is Taimur Jhagra and his rules that he had applied to Prof Sultan Zafar and removed him from his position within minutes,” a senior consultant opined.

This correspondent made multiple attempts to seek comments from Prof Shamsur Rahman and Taimur Jhagra but in vain.

The two cellphones of Prof Shamsur Rahman were found to be switched off and a text message was sent to him. Taimur Jhagra also avoided making any comment on the issue.