Govt asked to form committee for health reforms’ implementation

ABBOTTABAD: The People’s Doctors Forum (PDF), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter, has asked the government to constitute a special advisory committee on health to implement the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act 2015 and resolve the existing unrest in health sector of the province.  The PDF says the committee should comprise representatives of all doctors’ associations, health managers and think-tanks.

Dr Daud Iqbal, spokesman of PDF, told journalists after a general body meeting on Sunday that there was confusion about the act in all tertiary care hospitals of the province including Ayub Teaching Hospital Abbottabad. He added that regulations have yet to be prepared and the members selected for Board of Governors (BoG) for each hospital were not capable of handling the situation.

The spokesman said the committee should advise the Health Department for smooth implementation of MTI Act for the welfare of poor patients and to recommend removal of anomalies.

He said the PDF had discussed different issues related to doctors and expressed concern over the non-implementation of recent high court judgement in favour of Dr Iftikhar, a former MS of ATH.  He said the PDF also questions the role of Board of Governors at the ATH where the entire health structure has been paralysed for the last five days as none of the BoG members bothered to visit the hospital and try to settle the issue. 

Interestingly the medical director was also bypassed in these orders and most of the lower grade employees were transferred to other cities. He pointed out that the list does not include any of the protestors or representative of unions and was based on personal vendetta.

The PDF asked the authorities concerned to resolve the issues related to paramedical staff in ATH at the earliest as patients have been badly suffering. It also said BoG members should play their role for health reforms instead of victimising and targeting the staff members.