PESHAWAR: The doctors announced to observe black day on Monday and Tuesday in hospitals against non-induction of all medics for part II specialisation training as the government wanted them to take up other specialities than medicines and allied specialities where seats weren’t available to accommodate all the applicants.

The postgraduate medical institute (PGMI) inducts trainee medical officers (TMOs) in January and July. The selected candidates are deployed in hospitals on the basis of available seats approved by College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) on the basis of number of supervisors.

Dr Asfandyar Bittani, provincial president of Young Doctors Association, told Dawn that PGMI should induct all the applicants for training while the health department officials said that they could not induct all the 1,450 candidates because the number of seats was 875.

Officials say all 1,450 candidates can’t be accommodated as there are only 875 seats

“In the past, the government would send TMOs to other provinces and they were given stipend by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government. We need more specialists in medicines and allied specialities because there is extreme shortage in the province,” said Dr Asfandyar.

He said that YDA called off its sit-in after three days on Saturday, hoping that their demand would be met. “We would observe black day on Monday and Tuesday in the province. If the government does not move, then we will consider complete strike because it is a matter of future of doctors,” he said. He added that there is no proper policy about induction of trainee medical officers.

Health department, which is dealing with policy matters regarding the training of doctors, is averse to accept the demand of doctors to induct them all.

“The government is giving Rs80,000 per month during training to each TMO. Previously, they were sent to other provinces while stipend was given by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but that policy did not work because we did not have to appoint so many specialists in medicine and allied specialities,” senior health officials told this scribe.

They said that there were only 275 available seats for TMOs while applicants numbered 700. “We suggest that they should take up other specialities like, anaesthesia, radiology, psychiatry, eye, ear nose and throat (ENT), pulmonology, nephrology, gastroenterology, cardiac surgery, etc as these specialities are desperately needed by people of the province,” they added.

The officials said that CPSP offered postgraduate training in 75 specialities but most doctors wanted specialisation in medicines and allied specialities.

Dr Mudassar Afridi of Provincial Doctor Association said that although different criteria were followed across the country for inducting doctors, who wanted to be trained as specialists, they all had to take the FCPS Part-I examination.

Currently in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, doctors have to undergo an additional test conducted by Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency (Etea) that gets the biggest say in whether they will get their desired specialty or not. Additional criteria are also applied which seem to be fluid and ever-changing. “However, a definitive mechanism for ensuring optimum quality and quantity still remains to be designed and implemented,” said Dr Mudassar.

Prof Mohammad Arif Khan, the chief executive officer of PGMI, told Dawn that it was a policy matter to be decided by the government. “We have been holding webinars from time to time to convince the medics to go for the specialities, which are scarce and needed by the people,” he said.

He said that the province required doctors in 22 specialities. “The introduction of Etea has helped us because previously medical graduates from China, Russia and Afghanistan used to get many of training slots because of their higher marks but now 75 per cent marks are allocated to Eta test, 20 per cent to undergraduate and five per cent per cent to services periphery,” he added.

The doctors agreed with Dr Arif and said that it was purely on merit. In past merit was made on the basis of MBBs marks, then question was raised about discrepancies in private, foreign graduates and public sector marks, so the PGMI introduced its own test through Etea for induction and there was lesser chances of merit violation in it.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2021