September 8, 2002	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Saani29,1423

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PESHAWAR, Sept 7: The director-general health of NWFP, has asked the doctors to abide by the restriction clamped on institution-based practice (IBP) and abandon their private practice. They have been given one week after which disciplinary action would be taken against defiant doctors.

Talking to newsmen here on Saturday, Brig Habibur Rehman, the DG of provincial health, said the government had learnt that some doctors were involved in continuing private practice besides serving at the IBP. He said this practice was causing hardships to the patients.

“We hold doctors in high esteem and request them to choose between the private practice and the IBP. Those who do not want the IBP, should resign immediately, but violation of laid down rules would not be tolerated,” he warned. He was of the view that some doctors were continuing private practice besides continuing the IBP but avoided action against them intentionally in order to enable them to reconsider their choice.

He claimed that there was no justification by the doctors to continue private practice and also be engaged to the IBP, because they were earning handsome amount from the IBP. He said the government had arranged a meeting between the representatives of the doctors and the officials of the Central Board of Revenue at which the latter had agreed to grant 50 per cent rebate on the income tax payable by IBP doctors.

The health chief also claimed that the facilities at the state-run hospitals had improved after the launching of the IBP on March 1, 2001 and all the investigation facilities were now available to the people. The IBP, he said, had been earning Rs 25 million per month for the resource-starved health department and with the passage of time, people would feel much improvement at these government institutions.

He conceded that there were some loopholes in the administrative setup of the hospitals, however, efforts were being made to plug them. According to him, the government had introduced the IBP in order to improve medical practice in the province. He advised the doctors to share the improvements by observing medical ethics. He said the government was also striving hard to mitigate the genuine grievances of the doctors but said that there would be no compromise on the IBP.

He warned that after one week, vigilant committee would be constituted, which would conduct raids on the clinics and homes of the doctors to see if they were violating the law by indulging in private practice and legal action would be taken against violators.