PESHAWAR: Consultants at the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) have started private practice in the evening shift where the patients pay Rs600 as examination fee.

Dr Shah Jehan, member of the KTH board of governors, inaugurated the institution-based practice (IBP) here on Thursday. According to a statement, over 30 senior doctors have opted to do IBP in the evening shift, generate resources for the hospital and benefit the patients.

KTH became the second health institution after the Lady Reading Hospital to launch IBP, which is the integral part of the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act 2015, it said.

Under the law, the doctors have been given a choice to do private practice outside the hospital or within the hospital, it said.

Senior surgeons, physicians, cardiologists, radiologists, dermatologists, gynaecologists, paediatricians, paediatric surgeons, ENT specialists, cardiologists, nephrologists, psychiatrists, plastic surgeons and others are available for the patients who would get treatment under the same roof.

KTH medical director Professor Roohul Muqim said on the occasion that the launch of IBP at the hospital was a big step to benefit the people who would receive quality diagnostic and treatment services.

The IBP is aimed at providing quality and specialised treatment to the people on subsidised rate, he said.

The hospital, he said, was giving round-the-cloak specialised treatment services to the people not only in the outpatient departments, but also in the accident and emergency department where the seriously ill patients would get prompt treatment.

Prof Muqim said that the main objective of IBP was to strengthen the institution financially and make it autonomous.

The IBP starts at 3:00pm and runs till 8:00pm, he said, adding that the hospital had got high-tech equipments and well-qualified staff to ensure that people received quality treatment.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2017