PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the would-be ruling party, is planning to replicate Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act, 2015 in Punjab to grant full financial and administrative autonomy to hospitals and medical colleges to improve patients’ care and upgrade medical education.

The previous government of PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa implemented MTIRA in 2015 under which the teaching hospitals were run on the advice of Board of Governors. The hospitals enjoyed full administrative and financial autonomy and took all decisions without the interference of the health department. The system was yet to properly take off in KP but the PTI seemed satisfied with the way it was going towards improvement in patients’ care.

Sources said that Prof Nausherwan Burki, the architect of the law in KP, is arriving on August 8 and is likely to be assigned responsibilities at the centre by PTI chairman Imran Khan.

Mr Burki, who was chairman BoG of Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar till replacement of all BoGs on July 1 on the directives of Supreme Court of Pakistan, will be supervising the health reforms process in KP as well as in Punjab and Islamabad.

Architect of health reforms law likely to work as adviser to PM

He might work as adviser to prime minister for the whole country, sources told Dawn. They said that the next government would not only strengthen the MTI-covered hospitals in KP but also planned to get a health minister, who could improve the primary and secondary level health facilities to provide treatment to 80 per cent patients at the local level and reduce burden on the tertiary care hospitals that could cater to the needs of 20 per cent of the chronic and complicated patients.

The Punjab chapter of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has welcomed the move. PMA Punjab president Dr Izhar Chaudhry told Dawn that they had Punjab Medical and Health Institutions Act, 2003 that was good if implemented properly.

The previous governments in the province implemented the law only on papers but didn’t give delegated powers, he said. He added that the Board of Management (BoM) formed under the law to ensure autonomy to hospitals lacked the representations of retired bureaucrats and judges, who didn’t have any knowledge about health affairs and as result the piece of legislation proved a futile exercise.

Dr Izhar said that the centre of power remained health secretary. “We would cooperate with the new government to improve medical education and patients’ care at about 24 colleges and hospitals in the province,” he said.

PMA central general secretary Dr Qaisar Sajjad said that they always remained concerned about the issue of deteriorating health care in the country and wanted a comprehensive health policy. He said that PMA, as main stakeholder, was ready to provide guidelines to the government.

Dr Qaisar said that there should be a well-thought-out policy for the whole country to be followed and implemented by all the provinces. “We urge strengthening of basic health units for better primary health care along with provision of clean drinking water and immunisation for all diseases and scaling up public awareness about prevention of diseases and population control to be able to pave way for a healthy nation,” he added.

Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) is a regulatory body of the doctors for registration and medical education in the country. “It was governed by a caretaker setup and we want immediate elections to make the PMDC completely autonomous, transparent and free from political interferences,” he said.

Dr Qaisar said that restructuring of Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan, ban on quackery and improvement in governance in all healthcare institutions could lead to improvement.

He said that Dr Yasmin Rashid, a former president of PMA, should utilise her decades-long experience for betterment of the healthcare of the people. “We are ready to work with the new government and bring new law or revive or amend the existing ones for the sake of the people of this country,” he added.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2018