ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services (NHS) on Monday rejected the Medical Teaching Institution (MTI) bill as five members voted against and two in favour of it.

As the law was promulgated through a presidential ordinance in November 2020, it could only be extended once for 120 days. However, the second term of the bill is going to lapse on July 13.

The ordinance provided for constitution of a board of governors (BoG) to run federal medical teaching institutes and teaching hospitals. The ordinance was opposed by the employees of Pims.

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of ruling party Senator Dr Mohammad Humayun Mohmand at the Parliament House.

The committee passed the National Institute of Health (Re-organisation) Act 2021 unanimously.

NA speaker asks health secretary to solve allowance issue of frontline workers

In a related development, Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser, while taking notice of protests by the frontline health workers against nonpayment of the Covid-19 health risk allowance for the last 11 months, asked the health secretary to sort out the matter and report to him by 12 noon on Tuesday.

The speaker gave the ruling in the middle of a debate on cut motions moved by the opposition members demanding reduction in the allocation for the Ministry of National Health Services due to its alleged poor performance Speaking in support of their motions, they demanded appointment of a full-time federal health minister and criticised the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

PML-N legislator Mehnaz Akber Aziz said the government should appoint a permanent health minister because federal secretaries did not bother even to share their files with the the special assistant to the prime minister as they believed that they (secretaries) were directly under the prime minister.

She said over the years around one per cent of the GDP was allocated for the health sector but this year 1.2pc has been set aside as funds allocated for Covid-19 have also been merged in the health sector. She also lamented that prices of medicines had been increased by 26pc.

Talking about health cards, Ms Aziz said in Islamabad majority of residents belonged to different provinces so they were not eligible for the health card as the facility was only for permanent residents of the city as per their CNICs.

PPP legislator Dr Mahreen Razzaq Bhutto demanded a national health policy, adding at present a document titled national health vision exists which could not provide regulations.

She said a number of medicines were not registered in Pakistan and were smuggled into the country. Even quality of masks was not ensured, she alleged.

PML-N legislator Dr Nisar Ahmad Cheema said non-professional persons were appointed in Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) as a lawyer had been appointed its vice president.

“It is like a doctor appointed as member of a bar council. Medical education has been suffering. Today the Senate standing committee has rejected the MTI bill,” he said.

MTI bill

While considering the bill, a majority of the members of the Senate committee expressed their reservations regarding reorganisation of the federal medical teaching institutes and teaching hospitals.

Senator Jam Mahtab Hussain Dahar said definitions in the bill are non-specific and open-ended and that no specific criterion has been mentioned to define a consultant, board of governors and the principal accounting officer.

Senator Rubina Khalid said for the position of hospital director a medical degree must be made mandatory. She added that appointing all members of the board of governors from the private sector was not acceptable.

Senator Prof Dr Mehr Taj Roghani said the bill may be passed as it is.

Some members said apart from the MTI other options could have been explored as well and they feared that if the bill is passed it may increase the treatment cost for the poor and promote a parallel system within hospitals.

The bill suggested that Pims should be run under a board of governors. However, the employees believed that it was an attempt to privatise the hospital.

Moreover, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) is going to hear a case against the bill on July 1.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2021