PESHAWAR, Nov 22: Specialist Doctors Society has criticized junior doctors for having written letters to the governor to express their anguish over the government’s plan to reinstate the services of those doctors who had resigned.

A meeting of the Specialist Doctors’ Society (SDS) was held on Saturday with Dr Said Alam Mahsud in the chair.

It noted that the provincial government’s plan to adjust senior consultants, who had left their services in protest over the introduction of the institution-based practice (IBP) against the vacant posts in other specialities, was a normal practice in government departments for years.

The meeting, besides others, was attended by secretary general of the SDS and senior-most plastic surgeon, Dr Obaidullah.

It said that several officers of BPS-19 had been working as provincial secretaries against the post of BPS-20 in their own pay scales. Similarly, hundreds of trainee medical officers (TMOs) worked at the teaching hospitals and drew their salaries from the school health services.

An associate professor had been promoted by the NWFP governor to the rank of professor in BPS-20, while the post was non-existent.

The government, it said, had made temporary arrangements to restore the services of resigned doctors and end the crisis-like situation at the public-sector hospitals and in no way was it going to affect the doctors who had been promoted after their seniors resigned.

The SDS said it had categorically told the government that their reinstatement should not affect the services of the doctors, who had subsequently been promoted to higher grades.

But it lamented that some of the junior doctors, against whom inquiries were being held, were hoodwinked by vested interest and they issued press statements and addressed letters to the governor instead of the provincial government against the reinstatement of the senior consultants.

It urged the junior doctors to refrain from issuing statements and letters to save the situation from further deterioration. The meeting also slammed the junior doctors for suggesting to enforce IBP at the hospitals, saying that the system had already played havoc with the medical education as well as healthcare scenario in the province.

The IBP, the meeting said, had turned the public sector hospitals into money-minting machines for the government and the sufferings of the poor patients had increased.

The meeting welcomed the suggestion of the teaching staff of the Khyber Teaching Hospital that the resigned doctors may be appointed in Gomal and Saidu Medical Colleges to pave the way for recognition of these colleges.