10 February 2005	Thursday	30 Zilhaj 1425

PESHAWAR, Feb 9: The provincial health department is likely to restore the share of paramedics in users' charges received from patients in public hospitals, officials said here on Wednesday.

The government had abolished the share of doctors and paramedical staff through a notification issued on Oct 17, 2003. The decision had affected the income of staff, including pathologists, radiologists, laboratory assistants etc at all government-run hospitals in the province.

However, following a series of meetings between the paramedics and the administrations of the public sector hospitals, it came to the fore that the notification was meant to abolish the share of doctors only and not that of paramedics.

To clear the ambiguity, the administration of three hospitals- Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC)- wrote letters to the secretary health, asking him to clarify the position.

The letters also stated that they had not given share to paramedics since issuance of the notification. In reply, the secretary health communicated to these hospitals that the notification was not meant to abolish the share of paramedics and it was only in respect of doctors.

However, the directors of finance of the hospitals sent letters to the secretary, seeking further clarification. They informed the secretary that the hospitals owed huge amounts in respect of the shares of paramedics and doctors and giving paramedics their share and ignoring doctors could create problems for them.

Meanwhile, senior radiologists and pathologists had also written a letter to the provincial chief secretary, making a request for restoration of their share. In this situation the health department, last year, had constituted a committee headed by the dean of the Post-Graduate Medical Institute (PGMI) Prof Dr Arshad Javaid, to review the matter and submit its recommendations. The members of the committee included chief executives of KTH, HMC and LRH and heads of their radiology and pathology departments.

The committee, in its report submitted to the health secretary in April last year, had recommended restoration of the shares of both paramedics and doctors. It had concluded that restoration of share was important as its abolition had affected the performance of diagnostic units of public sector hospitals. It had, however, recommended a revised formula for determining shares of government and doctors/ paramedics in the users' charges. Previously, the income under this head went to government and the staff at a ratio of 60:40.

Under the recommended revised formula, sources said, the cost of medical investigation was to be reimbursed to the government while rest of the amount in users' charges was to be shared by the government, doctors, paramedics and respective hospitals at the ratio of 40:40:15:05 respectively.

The committee had also recommended a decrease in depreciation charges in the government's share in the evening shift to enable paramedics to draw a larger share. The committee had also recommended that the share from fees paid by the patients admitted to private rooms should be extended to the doctors and other subordinate staff.

Dr Arshad Javaid, while talking to this correspondent, admitted that according to the summary prepared for the cabinet's approval, paramedics were to get more benefit than doctors and the committee's suggestions were most likely to be implemented.

He said that the health minister and the former secretary health had agreed on restoration of the staff's share from the income of their respective hospitals.