On their own: Hospitals suffer under decision making void

Officials say they are unable to procure medicines, recruit.

PESHAWAR:

Soon after assuming charge, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) dissolved institutional management councils (IMCs) at state-run hospitals and announced it would set up new independent ones to oversee operations.

Special secretary of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Health Department Akbar Khan said they issued a notification in this regard on Monday following the approval of the chief minister. Health Minister Shaukat Yousafzai had also disclosed the names of the councils’ new members earlier last month.



Officials at state-run hospitals, however, claim they have not received any directives from the government, adding they are facing problems in procurement of medicines and equipment along with the recruitment and promotion of doctors. Previously, the IMCs took care of these areas at their respective hospitals.

The IMCs were established after the Autonomy Act 2001 and later the Autonomy Ordinance 2002 granted more administrative and financial powers to public sector health institutions.

On June 28, PTI dissolved the IMCs of the four state-run hospitals – Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) and Abbottabad Medical Complex (AMC) – over allegations of corruption.

“Construction work, repairing of machines and salaries of contractual employees has been held since the past three months,” said an official of the Hayatabad Medical Complex while requesting anonymity. He added the announcement of their annual budget and promotion of doctors are also pending as these require the approval of IMC members.

The official complained that though the PTI-led government had promised free healthcare and inaugurated new wards in the hospital, a shortage of doctors, nurses and Class-IV employees had created numerous problems. “If the health minister wants to bring real change, they first need to improve the old system.”

He said delays in the constitution of IMCs have adversely affected operations at the hospital as doctors do not have adequate resources to provide relief to patients.

A senior official at KTH said construction work at the hospital was halted as the administration was not in a position to pay for the work done in the past.

“We have the facilities to treat every disease, but the machinery and equipment is useless without surgeons and experts,” lamented a senior doctor at LRH.

The health department on Thursday called a meeting with officials of the hospital to discuss the matter on September 19.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2013.