PESHAWAR, Aug 24: NWFP Governor Khalilur Rehman has said there is one doctor for almost 2000 patients in Pakistan, a ratio extremely on the low side when compared with the international standard of one doctor for 500 patients.

Addressing as chief guest at the first convocation of the Saidu Medical College on its premises in district Swat on Wednesday, he said the bed-patient ratio could well be imagined.

Unfortunately, he added, the situation in the NWFP and Fata was worse than in other parts of Pakistan. The doctor-population ratio in the NWFP is one doctor for 5,146 people as compared to one doctor for 1,773 people in the rest of the country.

Likewise, while there is one hospital bed for 1,514 people in the rest of the country, the ratio in the NWFP and Fata is one bed for 1,703 persons and 1,892 persons, respectively, the governor said.

Similarly, infant mortality and maternal mortality rates in the NWFP and Fata were much higher than Punjab and Sindh.

He remarked that these were cold statistics which “we all have to keep in mind” and “start work to rid people of this backwardness”.

In fact, the governor told the audience, one of the reliable criteria to evaluate the pace of overall progress of a country “is doctor-patient ratio and hospital bed-population ratio”.

He stressed the need of boosting efforts to strengthen the medical profession to ensure “we met international standards”.

This, he added, “is a must to ensure availability of proper healthcare to people”.

The governor said medical is a noble profession and “doctors are required to deal with the ailing humanity all their life”.

In this profession, he said, “one has to stay in step with modern inventions to get one’s knowledge updated”.

In all 78 graduates were awarded degrees, 45 per cent among them girls.

Dr Sara Ali was adjudged the best graduate who got four gold medals. Others receiving the gold were Dr Ainullah, Dr Muhammad Asif, Dr Adnan, Dr Abu Bakr Hilal, Dr Zarnosh Khan and Dr Adnan.

The governor said that the responsibility of medical professionals “becomes all the more onerous” in view of the poor state of healthcare in the country.

“Sympathy, love and affection, soft-heartedness, politeness, pity, mercy and altruism must be the order of the day for doctors,” he remarked.

He noted that good response of a doctor to patients has always proved quite helpful in the treatment process.

He congratulated the graduates “on the fulfilment of their dreams” and said that their toils of the past five years had paid them off richly. “However,” he added, “it marks the culmination of only the first stage of your life”.

He said there was no substitute for experience. He advised the outgoing batch of students to make learning their lifelong passion.

The governor reminded them that they owed a “debt” to the college under the shadow of which they had received training. “It is now your moral duty to return what you had taken from it. You must lead a life which should enhance the credibility, esteem and repute of your alma mater”. He congratulated the parents for their sacrifices and teachers for the hard work they put in to enable the graduates “see this day”.

Referring to the demands made in the address of welcome for the expansion of infrastructure, provision of incentives to staff, and increase in budgetary allocations, the governor promised to make every effort to fulfil them.