PESHAWAR: Health department has barred medical teaching institutions from new recruitments, promotions and procurement of items owing to reports of unprecedented apprehensions of irregularities.

A notification issued by health department on Tuesday stated that health minister desired to impose ban on Board of Governors (BoGs) and other high-ups of medical teaching institutions (MTIs) to take major decisions in view of the recent reports of irregularities.

The department has told all the 10 MTIs in the province that non-compliance of the instructions will strengthen the apprehensions regarding irregularities. “Compliance may be ensured in letter and spirit to avoid uninterrupted provision of grants and cooperation by health department,” it said.

PTI govt has already decided to replace their BoGs

Official sources said that the directive was issued at the behest of newly-formed provincial government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to prevent MTIs from making major decisions because their BoGs were appointed by caretaker government by replacing the previous boards.

The PTI government has already decided removal of BoGs and stuffing MTIs with its own people to enforce its health reforms agenda started in 2015 with the implementation of Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act (MTIRA).

“In the past one and half years, these boards have made important decision, ranging from appointments to procurements, terminations and promotions in MTIs. Inquiries to such alleged irregularities have already been initiated. All such decisions will be revoked,” said sources.

They said that Prof Nausherwan Burki, the architect of MTIRA, was likely to assume his role as chairman of MTI Policy Board very soon. He is expected to resume work on the unaccomplished health reforms programme in the province.

Prof Burki was chairman of the BoG of Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) where MTIRA was first implemented and subsequently extended to more teaching hospitals and their affiliated medical and dental colleges.

Sources said that the government issued instructions to BoGs on the persuasion of Prof Burki, who was keeping an eye on development in MTIs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

They said that the existing BoGs also lost interest in working as they knew about their replacement sooner than later. Some of the BoGs had also reversed the decisions of the previous boards and those affected by such moves were awaiting their removal, they added.

Sources said that caretaker government had concentrated on MTIs to remove their powerful BoGs and appoint its own people. A former chief secretary and health secretaries had opposed the move of caretaker government to remove the boards, arguing that the interim government was not authorised to take policy decisions.

However, their arguments fell on deaf ears and new BoGs were appointed. According to sources, the PTI government did not fulfil its reforms agenda during its two terms in the province. During its current tenure, PTI wanted to enforce MTIRA more aggressively.

The reforms agenda introduced by PTI had met with staunch opposition from stakeholders including doctors, nurses and paramedics, who thought that it was a plan to privatise public sector hospitals and do away with pensions and other benefits of employees.

The pro-MTI doctors, however, argued that the law was meant to free teaching hospitals of political interference and grant them political and administrative autonomy to improve patient care. There was no agenda of privatisation as MTIs operated under the control of government, which issued funds to them as usual, they said.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2024