LAHORE, June 27: The Punjab government has approved punch-card system in the public sector medical colleges to monitor the presence of faculty members in the institutions. The approval was granted by Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi at a meeting with health minister Dr Tahir Ali Javed. The health department will now select one medical college to start the system as a pilot project.

The faculty members who would be found spending only nominal time at the colleges would be asked to leave, the minister said and added: “The health department will run medical institutions without those faculty members, who are giving only few minutes in a day to their institutions.”

He said the system would be implemented strictly and the defaulters would be asked to remove the title of public medical colleges and hospitals from their nameplates at their private clinics and hospitals.

In near future, he said, the punch-card system would be replaced with a digital fingerprint system.

Speaking at the Punjab PMA oath-taking ceremony at a local hotel on Monday, Dr Javed said a committee had been constituted to give recommendations regarding the doctors’ service structure.

However, the PMA and Medical Teachers Associations rejected the committee’s report, saying the recommendations had been made without consulting the doctors’ bodies.

The minister announced that no progress would be made on the matter and invited all stake-holders to hold a meeting. He said a final decision on doctors’ service structure would be made after incorporating professional bodies’ recommendations.

Answering a question from young doctors, he said the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan had frozen its fees on health department’s request. He said the department would negotiate with the CPSP for reduction in the fees being charged currently.

Answering another question, he said the department was working to ensure that every postgraduate trainee should work against a paid slot instead of serving on honorary basis. “After ensuring paid slots for all trainees, the government will work to enhance their existing Rs10,000 stipend,” he said.

Dr Javed said he had asked the health secretary to provide the list of postgraduate trainees working on honorary basis, and added the government had created around 390 paid slots for the trainees this year. To another question, he said the government was planning to do away with the house officers’ training system owing to sub-standard training practices. Instead, a three-year postgraduate family medicine diploma would be launched for young doctors, he said.

He said that he would also ask the health secretary to ensure the provision of basic facilities for house officers at the hospitals and hostels.