PESHAWAR, Jan 26: The NWFP Paramedical Association has urged the government to provide proper building, staff and facilities to the Post-graduate Paramedical Institute (PGPI) of the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).

Established 1999, the PGPI had been short of teachers, staff, books and other facilities due to which training of students had always been hampered, said Roidar Shah, chairman NWFP Paramedical Association (PMA), here on Wednesday.

Speaking at the certificate distribution ceremony of the PGPI at the LRH, he said the institute offered diploma courses in four disciplines and so far 879 students from NWFP and 210 from Fata had completed their training.

Mr Shah said they had planned to offer diploma and degree courses to all the 10,000 paramedics in the NWFP and Fata during the next 15 years. However, he urged the health department to expedite the process of the PGPI’s affiliation with the University of Peshawar.

Principal PGPI Dr Sabz Ali Khan pointed out that meeting of the institute’s governing body was overdue for more than one year while, according to rules, it should be held at least once every year.

He said that students were taught by the PGPI teachers but they were given examination by medical college teachers. Mr Khan demanded establishment of an academic council that could conduct examination of all public and private sector institutes.

The government spent Rs665 per students against the standard amount of Rs3,000 per student, he said, adding that bulk of the Rs2 million PGPI budget was consumed on staff salaries and the government should increase its budget.

He pointed out that as it did not have its own building, the PGPI had been housed in two rooms at the LRH for its more than 300 enrolled students. He said that the health department should demarcate six kanals of land, which had earlier been pledged for the institute, at the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC).

He said that according to the decisions taken at the 14th and 15th meetings of PGPI’s governing body, 20 per cent of the revenue generated by the NWFP Medical Faculty should be spent on uplift of the PGPI, but these decisions were never materialised.

Shortage of teachers had adversely been affecting students as there were only three regular teachers for 300 students, he said.