PESHAWAR, Sept 23: Anaesthetists at different hospitals in the province are finding it hard to make their ends meet and coexist with senior doctors.

According to an anaesthetist, surgeons do not treat qualified anaesthetists as their equals and prefer to get patients anaesthetized by assistants at private medical centres, paying them a paltry amount.

“That is the reason medical graduates do not specialize in this important subject,” he said.

As per rules, surgeons are required to pay one-third of operation charges to anaesthetists, which they do not do.

“Around 300 operations take place at private hospitals of the city on a daily basis and most patients are anaesthetized by anaesthesia assistants,” said the anaesthetist.

According to him, many patients die of anaesthesia-related complications, all of which goes unreported.

“There is no concept of assistants in the US and the UK and patients are anaesthetized by qualified doctors who are paid the amount surgeons get,” he said.

“Even the tertiary care hospitals do not have the required number of anaesthetists and the situation in rural areas is so bad that assistants sometimes perform the whole operation,” he added.

The entire province has a total of 15 anaesthetists against hundreds of surgeons and physicians.

The major strength of the anaesthesia department in the Lady Reading Hospital comprises around eight moderately trained anaesthetists. It also has about 10 non-qualified medical officers administering anaesthesia during complex surgical procedures.

The training source of future anaesthetists has dried up with the resignation of the only UK-trained anaesthetist from the PGMI during the IBP crisis in the province. The College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan has already derecognized the department for postgraduate training.

Open heart surgeries have also nearly come to a standstill and complex neurosurgical procedures have become a thing of the past.