PESHAWAR: The government is amending Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Regional and District Health Authorities Act, 2019, to remove the ambiguities and make it acceptable to all stakeholders, according to sources.

“The law passed by the provincial assembly was truncated, so we are amending it shortly,” senior officials told Dawn. They said that the original law submitted for approval was detailed and clear but the one passed missed out a lot of stuff and was quite unclear.

“Something went wrong in the ministry when it was being submitted,” they added. They said that the law was meant to abolish the district health system and replace it with a new one under which the local committees would run the affairs instead of the directorate of health services. The law has drawn sever criticism from doctors, paramedics and other employees of the health department.

Sources said that the law passed by the provincial assembly in September 2019 was yet to be enforced owing to stiff resistance by the health employees, who observed strike for at least 70 days last year against it.

Officials say fear of employees regarding losing service will be removed

The law has been modelled after the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act, 2015, to grant administrative and financial autonomy to district hospitals but in its present shape it didn’t serve the purpose for which it had been passed, they said.

Officials said that government implemented the MTIRA 2015 to grant administrative and financial autonomy to the teaching hospitals and its affiliated medical colleges. It had been extended to eight teaching hospitals so far, they said.

“We have been going very slowly with regard to full enforcement of MTIRA because of strikes and protests by the employees,” said the officials. They said that the law was challenged in court that was cleared towards the end of 2015.

“We fear the court will reject the RDHA 2019 if it is challenged because it lacks clarity and doesn’t have the substance we want,” they said.

Grand Health Alliance, an organisation representing 50,000 employees at about 1,600 health facilities, has been protesting against the law as it argues that it will deprive the workers of their regular jobs and health services would be privatised.

“They called off their last strike after 50 days when they were assured that the law would not be enforced,” said officials. They added that the new original draft was being prepared that would be more clear and acceptable to the employees.

The law would pave way for formation of 34 district health authorities, which will be responsible for running health-related affairs in the respective districts.

“The new law, to be submitted for approval of the lawmakers soon, would alley fears of the employees as it would ensure protection of services and set a mechanism to improve healthcare services at district level,” said officials.

They said that leadership of ruling PTI was unhappy with the health department for not submitting the original draft to the assembly that caused protests by the employees and delayed the plan to give autonomy to district health system.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2020