07 January 2005	Friday	25 Ziqa'ad 1425

PESHAWAR, Jan 6: Doctors have asked the government to issue a notification regarding the abolition of institution-based practice (IBP) in the NWFP Assembly session to be held from Jan 10.

They said its abolition would remove the prevalent unrest among doctors. Talking to Dawn here on Tuesday, a number of senior doctors called upon the provincial government to abolish the IBP and provide relief to the community.

Representatives of the Khyber Medical College Teachers' Association said the provincial government had abolished the system some two years ago but a notification in this regard had not yet been issued.

"Doctors fear that the government could introduce it (the IBP) again," said an office-bearer of the association. The practice was introduced by the military government in March 2002 in the province due to which doctors had to abandon their private clinics and start their practice in the evening shift in state-run hospitals.

The military government argued that the introduction of the institution-based practice was aimed at eliminating illegal and unethical practices from the health sector. Doctors were required to surrender Rs120 to the government out of their Rs300 consultation fee and had been given two options: either to practise in hospitals or quit the job.

Some 35 senior doctors had resigned in protest while others followed the government directive. Following the general elections in 2002, the NWFP government had constituted an 11-member parliamentary committee under MPA Anwar Kamal Khan Marwat. The committee had suggested to the government to abolish the system.

It had also called for the establishment of a health regulatory authority with powers to initiate action against the doctors indulging in unethical practices.

Its recommendations also included registration of private clinics and laboratories and allowing only the qualified pathologists and radiologists to run clinical and pathological laboratories.

However, the parliamentary committee's recommendations had not yet been implemented despite the passage of more than one-and-a-half year. Doctors' representatives said they had already started OPDs in the evenings on voluntary basis.

"There is no legal status of the evening OPD, but we are keeping our promise to start OPDs in the evenings if the institution-based practice was abolished," they said. They accused the government of delaying the notification to abolish the practice, and added it was creating unrest among the doctors.

An official in the health secretariat said the NWFP government was trying its level best to bring a bill in the provincial assembly aimed at scrapping the institution-based practice. The bill, he added, would finally be sent to NWFP Governor Iftikhar Hussain Shah for assent.

The governor, the official said, would not give approval to the bill because he was the moving spirit behind the introduction of the new system. The governor's interest can be gauged from the fact that it was still in vogue in the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas, which come under his jurisdiction.

Association members said the health system had already suffered a great deal in view of the resignations of the senior doctors and could not afford any further harm.

"We are sure half of the remaining doctors would also resign from their jobs if the IBP was not abolished. Doctors aren't ready to accept illegal and illogical decisions of the government," said an office-bearer of the association.

He said after the resignation of the senior doctors, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan, had withdrawn its recognition to about five wards at the teaching hospitals due to which the NWFP was not able to produce specialists in five disciplines of the medical sciences. However, Health Minister Inayatullah Khan told Dawn that the issue was not on the agenda for the coming assembly session.