PESHAWAR: The management of most medical teaching institutions (MTIs) has opposed the new directive of government to work six days a week instead of five days to ensure better patient care.

Last week, health department issued a notification, asking MTIs to work six days a week instead of five days to improve patient care. The order issued on the recommendation of MTI Policy Board said that MTIs would work six days a week, including institution-based practice (IBP). It said that MTIs should provide health services to patients throughout the week except for Sunday.

Peshawar Institute of Cardiology (PIC) and its Board of Governors (BoG) opposed the decision in the meeting of Policy Board, saying it would badly affect efficiency of the institute by reducing the time available for elective surgeries, according to a member of the board.

“There is a lot of difference between operations of a hospital and any government department. The latter gets closed on Friday and gets re-opened on Monday while the former stays open throughout the year,” he said.

Medics fear it will affect their efficiency

Most of the deans, medical and hospital directors of MTIs, interviewed by this scribe, opposed the new decision of the government.

“With IBP most doctors work from 8am to 8pm. It is 60-hour duty. An additional one day will make it 72 hours a week. Additionally, with the new government around the corner, should caretakers be taking major policy decisions,” questioned a dean of one of the 10 MTIs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said that some of the newly-appointed chairpersons and members of Board of Governors (BoGs) of MTIs had taken over executive, operational and managerial functions in violation of the law. The government should look into such matters, he added.

“It is a total mess with parallel administrations because each and every MTI has the services of dean, medical, hospital, nursing and finance director. They are supposed to implement the government’s agenda through BoG,” he said.

The hospital director at one of the Peshawar-based MTIs told Dawn that the notification issued by government should be rescinded because all the MTIs had been working throughout the week. “The hospitals never get closed even on Sundays. Doctors conduct rounds of wards and operate upon patients while nursing and paramedic staff performs duty,” he said. He added that the only difference was that the main outpatient department (OPD) remained shut on Saturdays but the patients visited the accident and emergency department round-the-clock.

A senior consultant in Mardan Medical Complex told Dawn that they had already working six days a week and the staff was happy. All the MTIs should enforce the directives.

However, majority of the MTIs are not satisfied with six days working.

A senior administrative officer at one of the MTIs termed the decision non-starter. He said that it was difficult for consultants to work for six days a week. Those doing IBP would be at the receiving end, he added.

“The consultants sit in OPD and see patients in the morning. Again, they come to IBP in evening where they examine patients on fee. Some patients are operated upon during night while in the morning they come again to pursue the same routine,” he said.

He said that staying away from OPD and IBP provide consultants a chance to relax. “Even on Saturdays and Sundays, consultants observe ward rounds and operate upon critically-ill patients,” he added.

Many of the officials in administrative hierarchy of MTIs said that they were going to implement the directives from next week but requested the government to reconsider the move as it would create problems for the staff, especially the specialists doing IBP.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2024