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| April 15, 2003 | Tuesday | Safar 12, 1424 |
Facilities for paramedics sought
PESHAWAR, April 14: Speakers on the concluding day of a three-day workshop organized by the World Health Organization at Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, on Sunday urged the government to provide paramedics with more facilities and training to strengthen the health delivery system.
“ The problem lies at the top level, where the sanctioning of new posts for paramedics has become a herculean task,” lamented Dr Azra J Qureshi, National Coordinator for Paramedical Resource Development, College of Medical Technology, PIMS, Islamabad. The workshop’s purpose was to come up with a strategy to produce more health professionals to improve the health-care delivery system, she stated, adding that paramedics, with doctors and nurses, form a tricycle, which is the backbone of a country’s health-care system. But, here, she felt that no effort seemed to be made to improve their working conditions nor train them in different medical disciplines.
“There are 54 sub-specialities. If the government wishes to establish an enduring health delivery system in the country, it should encourage paramedics in all these disciplines,” Dr Qureshi pointed out. Although paramedics play a vital role in vaccination campaigns, assist doctors in operation theatres, OPDs and investigative centres, the government fails to realize their importance, she deplored.
The institutions established for postgraduate studies and training of paramedics have been ignored leading to falling standards in hospital’s dispensaries and BHUs. although an infrastructure existed in most state-owned hospitals and health facilities, she said it was the non-availability of trained paramedics that was hampering their smooth functioning.
Every doctor should have the support of five trained paramedics according to WHO’s guidelines, Dr Qureshi said but this seemed to be non-existent here.
Provincial president of the Paramedical Association Sirajuddin Burki painted a dismal picture of the working conditions of paramedics. And that although the number of paramedics in the province was more than 5,000, including operation theatre assistants, radiographers, ECG technicians, dispensers, no service structure existed for them.
“Most of them retire in the same grade they get appointed in, after years of hard services. A telling example of government apathy is the fact that out of all the paramedics only 100 have gone on to BPS-16 after decades of services,” Mr Burki lamented.
After the association’s efforts four postgraduate colleges for paramedics were established in the province in 1999, offering degrees as well as diplomas in different branches of medical technologies. Some 300 paramedics have graduated from the colleges, but they remain unsure about their promotion to the next grade.
“ The animosity of the doctors is hindering the paramedics. They write our ACRs (annual confidential reports). We want a representative body of our own at the administrative level to protect the employees rights,” Mr Burki stated. Quackery could be curtailed by providing paramedics with training , he believed. The government should further acknowledge the fact that about 80 per cent of the rural population was dependent on paramedics for their health-care needs.
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