PESHAWAR, Jan 27: The doctors on Monday opposed the introduction of institution-based practice at the public sector hospitals and asked the government to abolish it in the patients’ interest.

The doctors expressed their view in their meeting with the parliamentary committee of the NWFP Assembly held here on Monday presided over by PML-N MPA, Anwar Kamal Khan Marwat.

The meeting was attended by the members of parliamentary committee, including, MPAs, Abdul Akbar Khan, Bashir Ahmad Bilour, Shehzada Gustasif Khan, Pir Mohammad Khan, Dr Semin Mehmood Jan, Dr Imtiaz Bukhari and health minister, Inayatullah Khan.

The doctors were represented by Dr Abdul Hameed, Dr Syed Alam Mahsud, Dr Naeem Khattak, Dr Fazal Ahmad, Dr Saleem and Dr Kamal.

The doctors informed the committee that the IBP system was introduced in government hospitals in haste and that was why it failed.

The patients did not benefit from it as they had to pay the same fee as in private clinics.

Likewise, the doctors argued that the fee for diagnostic tests and operations was also higher than that of private clinics.

The committee felt that the system not only failed to give financial benefits to the patients, but also played havoc with the medical education in the province.

“Most of the senior consultants resigned from their posts to protest against the IBP, which caused a severe blow to the medical students and training of the doctors, appearing in postgraduate examinations,” a doctor who attended the meeting told Dawn.

He also said that they had requested the committee to arrange their meeting with the health department officials, who introduced the system so that matters could be sorted out.

The doctors argued that at the time of the launching of the scheme, the government had claimed that the IBP would serve as a shield against the increasing number of quacks.

But this has not happened; illegal clinics continue to function.