Brain drain: Few specialists in sight for patients in K-P
A total of 180 senior posts lie vacant across the province.
Vacant positions are due to, doctors not willing to work in some districts, lack of specialist doctors and political interference to transfer specialists to other districts. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE
PESHAWAR:
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) is facing a serious shortage of specialists in both tehsil and district headquarters hospitals, as a majority of senior posts in these institutions have been lying vacant for years.
Data obtained from the District Health Information System (DHIS) in the provincial health department revealed a total of 180 posts between basic pay scale (BPS)-17 and 20 are vacant, creating administrative problems and compelling patients to go to other districts to consult specialist doctors.
An official of the DHIS, requesting anonymity, said the vacant positions were due to various reasons including lack of specialist doctors, doctors not willing to work in some districts, and political interference to transfer specialists to other districts.
“It is the patients who ultimately suffer because they do not have access to specialists such as pulmonologists, orthopaedics, cardiologists, gynaecologists, neurosurgeons and many others,” he said.
The maximum number of vacancies for a single district is in Upper Dir, where 19 out of 20 BPS-18 posts are unfilled. Additionally, 10 out of 11 and 11 out of 24 posts of the same grade are vacant in Samar Bagh Hospital and Timergara respectively.
Mardan, the hometown of former chief minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti, also has a large number of empty posts with 21 of a total 26 BPS-18 vacant and all six BPS-17 positions unoccupied in both the tehsil and district headquarters hospitals.
Other districts facing a shortage of doctors in various positions include Kohat with six in 10, DI Khan with one in 11, Lakki Marwat with 14 in 17, Mansehra with six in 12, Malakand with 10 in 18, Haripur with 11 in 13, all eight in Hangu, all nine in Shangla, Chitral with seven in 24, Nowshera with six in 14, Swat with two in four, Abbottabad with 14 in 24, and Charsadda with five in 10. Peshawar and Bannu districts, on the other hand, have no vacant posts in their hospitals.
“We have introduced a law which requires all graduating doctors to spend at least three years in their home district, but many people are struggling to get jobs in Peshawar,” Director General of the Directorate of Health Services Dr Sharif Ahmad Khan told The Express Tribune.
He said posts for senior specialists had been sanctioned in all hospitals in order to provide patients with access to doctors. “Despite this, doctors are still going abroad for specialisation and creating problems for patients,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 1st, 2013.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) is facing a serious shortage of specialists in both tehsil and district headquarters hospitals, as a majority of senior posts in these institutions have been lying vacant for years.
Data obtained from the District Health Information System (DHIS) in the provincial health department revealed a total of 180 posts between basic pay scale (BPS)-17 and 20 are vacant, creating administrative problems and compelling patients to go to other districts to consult specialist doctors.
An official of the DHIS, requesting anonymity, said the vacant positions were due to various reasons including lack of specialist doctors, doctors not willing to work in some districts, and political interference to transfer specialists to other districts.
“It is the patients who ultimately suffer because they do not have access to specialists such as pulmonologists, orthopaedics, cardiologists, gynaecologists, neurosurgeons and many others,” he said.
The maximum number of vacancies for a single district is in Upper Dir, where 19 out of 20 BPS-18 posts are unfilled. Additionally, 10 out of 11 and 11 out of 24 posts of the same grade are vacant in Samar Bagh Hospital and Timergara respectively.
Mardan, the hometown of former chief minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti, also has a large number of empty posts with 21 of a total 26 BPS-18 vacant and all six BPS-17 positions unoccupied in both the tehsil and district headquarters hospitals.
Other districts facing a shortage of doctors in various positions include Kohat with six in 10, DI Khan with one in 11, Lakki Marwat with 14 in 17, Mansehra with six in 12, Malakand with 10 in 18, Haripur with 11 in 13, all eight in Hangu, all nine in Shangla, Chitral with seven in 24, Nowshera with six in 14, Swat with two in four, Abbottabad with 14 in 24, and Charsadda with five in 10. Peshawar and Bannu districts, on the other hand, have no vacant posts in their hospitals.
“We have introduced a law which requires all graduating doctors to spend at least three years in their home district, but many people are struggling to get jobs in Peshawar,” Director General of the Directorate of Health Services Dr Sharif Ahmad Khan told The Express Tribune.
He said posts for senior specialists had been sanctioned in all hospitals in order to provide patients with access to doctors. “Despite this, doctors are still going abroad for specialisation and creating problems for patients,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 1st, 2013.