Patients rejoice as OPD doctors resume duties

Strike comes to an end after CM forms the four-member committee to resolve issues

PESHAWAR: Doctors started tending to patients in the outpatient departments of tertiary care government hospitals of the province on Monday, effectively bringing to an end the month-and-a-half-strike which had disrupted medical services in the province.

The 47-day strike, called by the Grand Health Alliance (GHA), came to an end after representatives of doctors held a successful meeting with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan over the weekend.

In a statement, the GHA said that the strike is being brought to an end after their representatives met with the chief minister who assured them of resolving their genuine grievances.

To resolve the grievances of doctors, the K-P government on Sunday constituted a four-member committee to hold a dialogue with representatives of doctors and find a solution to the situation. A notification for forming the committee was also released.

According to the notification, the committee will be led by K-P Law Minister Sultan Muhammad Khan while Communication and Works Minister Akbar Ayub Khan and Food Minister Qalandar Khan Lodhi will be its members while the K-P Health secretary will be the secretary for the committee.

The committee has been given two months to come up with acceptable solutions.

The GHA has nominated six members to represent it in the dialogue committee. Their delegation will be led by Dr Sirajul Islam while other members include Professor Amir Azhar, Dr Alamgir Khan, Johar Ali, Anwar Sultana and Ahmed Khan.

During the past 47-days, several dialogue committees, comprising senior doctors, were formed to spark negotiations to resolve the issue while the government also displayed measured flexibility on its part.

Earlier, the government had tasked the Health Department’s Special Secretary Dr Farooq Jameel for arranging backdoor meetings between the dialogue committee and representatives of the doctors before a formal announcement was made.

Sources, the health minister was seen nowhere during the entire process and further questions have been raised over his role in the entire standoff given his conspicuous absence from the dialogue committee as well.

The government has been under pressure after doctors and technicians working in the anti-polio teams at the Union Council (UC) level resigned. As a result, the government had to suspend the campaign which was due to commence on November 4, sources claimed.

Meanwhile, as a last resort, the doctors’ community had threatened to resign en masse after which negotiations between the government and the doctors began.

Sources added that the District Health Authority (DHA) and Regional Health Authority (RHA), which the government intends to set up to better manage the system, will be introduced in only two districts of the province on a pilot basis while the project will undergo a clinical audit by an international organization after three years.

If the report indicates that the system provided relief to the people, the system will be enforced in other parts of the province. The government, though, has yet to constitute rules and regulations for DHA and RHA before introducing the system on a trial basis.

Meanwhile, sources have disclosed that the government has agreed on a number of demands put forward by the doctors including their representation in the DHA and RHA, provision of grants to hospitals instead of debt, scrapping a clause regarding public-private partnership and job security for doctors as entitled under the Medical Teaching Institute (MTI)) law wherein doctors will be given allowances and pensions after retirement.

KTH gets a new acting chief

The Board of Governors of the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) has accepted the resignation of Pediatric Surgery Chairman Professor Dr Inayatur Rehman from his additional responsibilities of acting hospital director.

In a statement released by the hospital’s media cell, on Monday, the board accepted his resignation during its meeting on Friday. It added that the board has appointed the institutional employee Dr Zafar Afridi, the chief medical officer on Basic Pay Scale (BPS) grade 20 as the new acting hospital director.

Dr Afridi is a management specialist who completed his MBBS in 1986 from Khyber Medical College and completed his further studies in hospital administration from the UK.

Dengue soars to 6,880

Even though doctors returned to duties in public hospitals on Monday, dengue cases have seen little sign of stopping with 12 new viral fever cases reported across the province, the provincial health department said.

This takes the total toll to 6,880 cases confirmed this year.

According to the daily report of the dengue response unit, the provincial capital remains the worst-hit area with a total of 2,621 cases reported until now as seven new cases were reported from the city over the past 24 hours.

WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM APP 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2019.