PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to establish an arbitration council to ensure resolution of grievances of the health employees and stop court wrangling over appointment, transfer and promotion etc for smooth functioning of the healthcare institutions, according to sources.
They said that government was sick with stay orders obtained by the doctors, nurses, paramedics and other employees of the health department from court as there was no proper litigation cell to pursue such cases efficiently and ensure effective functioning of the hospitals.
“There are more than 1,500 cases filed by the employees against the health department’s directives and policies that have worried the government, which wants to address the court’s issues at the earliest,” said sources.
Prof Nausherwan Burki, the chairman of Prime Minister Task Force on Health, said that such stay orders were preventing the country from making progress as those hampered the reforms agenda.
“We are working on a law to establish a proper arbitration council to end the issues we are facing due to cases in the courts,” he said.
Initiative meant to end litigation and ensure smooth functioning of hospitals
Prof Burki, the architect of Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act, 2015 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told Dawn that legal experts were in the process to specify structure and functioning of the proposed arbitration council on rapid basis.
“We hope it will be in place within a fortnight,” he said. When asked if the arbitration council would have protection by the law, he said: “Yes, of course.”
The health department’s inability to pursue effectively the cases filed by doctors, paramedics, nurses and other employees in courts about their promotions, transfers and postings has been hampering regular postings on top positions in the medical teaching institutions as well as in other hospitals.
The MTIRA 2015, enforced by the PTI government in its first tenure in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to introduce reforms and do away with the “rotten” health system and improve patients’ care, is yet to be fully enforced owing to non-appointments of officers on top positions.
The positions of medical director (MD), hospital director (HD) and nursing director (ND) lie vacant at Khyber Teaching Hospital owing to lack of proper litigation. All the three positions are held by people on temporary basis.
Interview for the post of ND was stopped by the court after issuing a stay order when interview was in progress. However, the court ordered that interview should be completed and result should not be announced till issuance of final verdict.
The situation in other MTIRA-covered hospitals and colleges is more or less the same where the top positions are held by people on acting charge basis because of cases in the courts.
The MTIRA was challenged in the court at the onset of its implementation and was delayed for one year because of weak perusal by the government. The court cleared the law when top law officer argued before it that it was passed by the assembly and wasn’t in contravention to the country’s law. But one year has already been lost in the process.
The situation had upset the people visiting hospitals for treatment as in most of such cases, employees left their workplaces to plead their cases in courts. More than 90 per cent of cases were about postings, transfers and promotions of employees and other administrative decisions.
It has been observed that people working on ad hoc basis obtain stay order when they are replaced.
The employees also get relief from the court when disciplinary action is taken against them on administrative grounds but the legal cell of health department is run by a section officer, supported by an assistant.
Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2019
