PESHAWAR, Jan 1: Opposition by a group of senior doctors was hampering the government’s plan to introduce management cadre in the health department, sources said.

“Of the 372 management cadre posts in the (provincial) health department, only 10 are held by doctors with relevant qualifications,” they said. The federal government had notified the introduction of the management cadre in the health department after the National Health Policy 2001 was announced, but the provincial health department is shying away from implementing it. Soon after the announcement of the Health Policy 2001, the then provincial governor through an ordinance issued same year, asked the health department to implement the management cadre.

“Most of the doctors, working on management posts don’t have the relevant qualification …due to which they are blocking the move. Once implemented, hundreds of doctors presently on management posts would lose their jobs,” sources added.

Except the NWFP, the three other provinces had already implemented the management cadre in their respective health sectors.

Initially, the NWFP health department had delayed the decision on the ground that there was not enough number of doctors with Masters in Public Health (MPH), due to which these posts would remain unoccupied even if the administrative cadre was introduced.

Seeing this, the department gave an interim three-year period to the desiring doctors to get the relevant qualification.

In the meantime, most of the doctors from the directorate of health, executive district officers (EDOs), health, medical superintendent (MS) and deputy medical superintendents (DMS) of the hospitals obtained MPH degree from private colleges and institutions. But the health department is finding it hard to accept such degrees because the organisations from where the doctors obtained their degrees have not been recognised by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).The PMDC, established through an Assembly Act in 1961, is responsible for regulating the medical education, training and experimentation in the country and therefore the health department could not accept the MPH degrees awarded by organisations not recognised by it.

On the other hand, there are about 700 doctors, who had to their credits MPH degrees awarded to them either by foreign or local institutes recognised by the PMDC. “The people already working on the management posts are unwilling to give up and let the department appoint recognised ones on their posts,” said sources at the directorate of health here.

The provincial health department had also formed a committee to implement the management cadre. A member of the committee said that they were planning to appoint those doctors on the management posts, who had first obtained MPH degrees. “But the people, who are already in possession of such posts and who had obtained their degrees from the unrecognised colleges, are opposed to the move,” he said.

A senior doctor, who obtained MPH degree from a non-recognised institute in Peshawar, said that the institute had been recognised by the Higher Education Commission (HEC). However, the health department officials argue that they would offer the posts to those having degrees from the institutes recognised by the PMDC.

The doctors presently working on the administrative posts are said to be unaware of administrative laws and are entirely at the mercy of office superintendents, who often misguide them on administrative matters. A committee member said that those with the MPH would be appointed on key posts in districts, directorate of health and as principals and vice-principals of paramedical institutes, nursing schools and health services’ academies.

Though a move was proposed in 2002, its implementation was deferred after resentment shown by the doctors already working on the administrative posts. The general doctors’ cadre moved the court and an order were issued in their favour through which the introduction of the administrative or management cadre in health department was stayed.