Medical manpower: ‘Bolster not abolish postgrad medical institute’

Doctors associations protest govt’s plan to scrap PGMI at HMC.

PESHAWAR:

Doctors associations on Tuesday demanded the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government further strengthen the Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI) at Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) instead of abolishing it.

Under the umbrella of the Provincial Doctors Association (PDA), other associations, including PGMI teaching staff, People Doctors Forum, Malgari Doctoran and Insaf Doctors Forum held a grand general body meeting against the government’s plan to abolish PGMI.

Talking to The Express Tribune, PDA Chairman Dr Shah Sawar said PGMI is the parent institute of K-P doctors and is currently providing postgraduate training to about 2,000 doctors all over the province.

Shah Sawar claimed the abolishment of PGMI will prove to be disastrous for postgraduate medical training facilities, since it is the only representing, monitoring and regulatory body in K-P.

He said the move will also lead to loss of transparency in the recruitment of trainee medical officers, adding that induction at PGMI is based purely on merit.

The senior doctor instead suggested the government should create separate sub-offices for medical and surgical specialties, and that there should be more than one dean of the institute. Shah Sawar said the medical institute should be provided with state-of-the-art postgraduate training facilities at par with international standards in order to overcome the manpower deficiency in the health sector.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2014.