PESHAWAR, June 13: The chief executives of the city hospitals claimed the other day to have earned millions of rupees from the institution-based practice (IBP) besides upgradation of facilities for the patients during the last three months.

Talking to newsmen, Dr Mohammad Jamil, Chief Executive of the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), and Dr Zahir Shah, CE of the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), claimed to have purged the private medical practice of the doctors from corruption.

Dr Jamil claimed that the hospital had earned Rs2.3 million from the IBP since its launching on March 1, 2,001. He said efforts were afoot to improve health care facilities and equipments worth Rs20 million had been purchased to provide all the necessary investigative facilities to the patients inside the hospital.

The IBP, he said had proved a blessing for the patients because they had been protected from falling pray to the doctors at the private medical centres.

To a question, he admitted that nine doctors had been carrying out their private practices along with the IBP, for which disciplinary action had been initiated against them.

Dr Jamil said nine doctors had tendered resignations, of which five had already been accepted and the rest were being considered.

He set aside the impression that the resignation of the senior doctors would either affect the medical education or the clinical activities at the state-run hospitals, saying that they had received 44 applications from the doctors to fill the vacancies.

Vigilant committees, he said, had been assigned the task to pinpoint anomalies taking place in the IBP so that action could be taken against those violating the laid down rules of the IBP.

KTH CE Dr Zahir Shah told newsmen that the IBP had proved a complete success and the number of visiting patients were increasing. According to him, the doctors at the KTH had seen 17,000 patients in the IBP in the last three months due to which the hospital gained an amount of Rs8 million.

Action, he said, had been initiated against four doctors who were allegedly involved in carrying out the IBP and their private practices simultaneously.

He disclosed that five new OPDs and two wards at the KTH would be launched shortly which would solve the space problem at the hospital to a great extent.

Meanwhile, two consultants, Dr Muzaffaruddin Sadiq (general surgeon) and Dr Gohar Rehman (paediatrician) of Hayatabad Medical Complex, who had earlier applied for resignation from their jobs against the government’s decision to introduce the IBP in official hospitals, had requested that “the government not to accept their resignations, as they are willing to join the IBP.”

An official of the health department, meanwhile, said the applications moved by some senior doctors had been approved by medical board.