Health ministry told to improve hospitals

A Senate panel on Thursday directed the federal health ministry to do more to improve the state of services being provided at public-run hospitals in the country.

This was directed as the Standing Committee on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination met at the Parliament Lodges in the federal capital on Thursday with Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM) Senator Khushbakht Shujaat in the chair.

The committee was attended by the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, the ministry’s additional secretary, National Institution of Health (NIH) chief Major General Amir Ikram among other officials and members of the panel.

During the meeting, Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) Senator Shafiq Tareen said that several subordinate departments of the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination were operating with temporary heads. As a result, the service delivery of public-run health institutions in the federal capital is in a shambles.

Rejecting a report submitted by the health ministry on the appointment of institution heads as incomplete, Senator Tareen asked what problem did the health ministry have with appointing permanent heads of institutions.

He said: “Under the law, no officer can hold a temporary charge for more than three months but some officers have been holding their temporary posts for extended periods.”

Health ministry officials said that soon they will appoint permanent heads for hospitals in the federal capital and sought time to submit another report.

The committee, though, directed the ministry to submit a response at its next meeting on September 24.

PMDC issues

Senator Bahramand Tangi raised the issue of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) president and the limbo graduates of the Abbottabad International Medical College (AIMC) are finding themselves in.

Tangi said that the council had cancelled the provisional registration of the private medical education institution. This, he said, had put into jeopardy the future of 65 students who had graduated from the institutions.

The senator noted that while the PMDC had repeatedly warned and ultimately directed AIMC to stop taking admissions, the college did not pay any heed to it but the students could not be penalised for that.

However, the committee was of the view that the council cannot play with the lives of graduates.

Tangi said that when he approached the PMDC chief to provide provisional certificates of RMP to the 65 students so that they can begin house jobs, the council’s president flatly refused.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2020.