PESHAWAR, Aug 15: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has decided to send graduates of public sector medical colleges for house job to Mardan Medical Complex (MMC) as part of its strategy to develop it into a teaching hospital for Bacha Khan Medical College.  

The MMC is affiliated teaching hospital of Bacha Khan Medical College, Mardan that was set up two years ago.

“Last year, government began inducting newly graduated doctors for house job in MMC but only a few turned up. Many others took salaries from MMC but worked in teaching hospitals in Peshawar,” a senior official told Dawn.

The health department decided to upgrade MMC into a teaching facility after establishment of Bacha Khan Medical College (BKMC) in 2010. For the purpose, government decided to send graduates of Khyber Medical College, Khyber Girls Medical College Peshawar and Ayub Medical College Abbottabad to MMC for house job.

Officials said that same was case of Mufti Mahmood Teaching Hospital (MMTH) Dera Ismail Khan that couldn’t be developed into a full-fledged medical college owing to unwillingness of graduates of its affiliated Gomal Medical College to complete their house job there.

As a result the population suffered, they said. During the past seven years, most of the doctors worked in Peshawar hospitals but received Rs22,000 as monthly stipend from MMTH, they added.

“In the absence of local graduates, government has been inducting graduates of Chinese medical colleges and they along with trainee medical officers run the wards in the hospital,” officials said.

But the government is not showing any leniency towards the doctors, who are not joining their house job in Mardan. “We are sending doctors to Mardan purely on merit. Those, who obtained high marks in final year MBBS, are sent to medical and surgical wards of Khyber Teaching Hospital, Lady Reading Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex,” Special Secretary Health Prof Noorul Iman told Dawn.

He said that there were 150 house job seats in three teaching hospitals whereas number of candidates, who had passed MBBS from KMC and KGMC, was 191. He added that the three hospitals were supposed to accommodate graduates of KMC and KGMC first and offer the remaining seats to the graduates of other colleges.

“We have to send 41 KMC and KGMC students for house job to Mardan and Swat. There is no question of accommodating the graduates of other colleges owing to non-availability of seats,” Prof Iman said.

He said that they had more than 25 vacant seats of house officers in Mardan but doctors weren’t willing to go there. The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) had made one-year house job mandatory for fresh graduates, he said, adding it didn’t matter where a doctor did his house job.

Sources in health secretariat said that it was an uphill task to develop new medical colleges, including BKMC Mardan.

Some seven year ago there were only two medical colleges -- KMC Peshawar and AMC Abbottabad -- in the province and the students of AMC were allowed to complete house job in Peshawar-based teaching hospitals because of availability of seats.

Now number of medical colleges in the province has reached to eight that produce 1,000 doctors every year. The health department had planned to build 13 new medical colleges in the province over the period of 10 years.

Of them, BKMC Mardan has been operational for two years. Each year, it enrolls 50 students. The college will pass out its first graduate batch in 2016. Till passing out of the first batch of BKMC, doctors from Peshawar and other medical colleges will be sent to MMC for house job.