PESHAWAR: The bar placed on Board of Governors of medical teaching institutions (MTI) to refrain from making major decisions is affecting the ongoing promotion process of doctors, according to sources.

Doctors said that the new directives by government stopped the ongoing process of their promotion to next grades in MTIs. They said that their promotions were totally merit-based and should be allowed to meet the growing needs of patients.

They told this scribe said that ban on procurement, recruitment, termination and promotion in MTIs by the government was unjustified as other activities shouldn’t be equated with upgradation of positions. They said that it was their legal right to move to upper grades as they possessed the required qualification and experience as per law.

The government on Tuesday barred BoGs of MTIs from taking major decisions. It has also brought to a standstill the process of selecting doctors for promotions. Doctors have demanded of the government to allow their promotions as it is totally an academic matter.

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“Promotions are awarded in a transparent way after fulfillment of due process,” said doctors.

Consultants in clinical and basis sciences departments at MTI-covered medical colleges said that their promotions were overdue and approved by committees as per Medical Teaching Institutions Act, enforced in 2015 by the government.

They said that most of the doctors, to get affected by ban, had already been asked by their respective deans to submit their documents for their promotion.

“In each MTI, scores of positions are vacant and the process of promotion has been under way in medicines, surgery, orthopaedic, paeds, gynae, ENT, eye, accident and emergency departments and other specialities,” said a specialist doctor.

He said that his promotion was overdue. He appealed to chief minister to allow promotion as it had nothing to do with the caretaker government. He said that promotion of doctors was a routine.

“There is a brain drain as 50 per cent nurses have already gone abroad and others are weighing options. Denial of promotion to employees is against the basic human rights,” he said.

The specialist said that a teaching hospital could not be run without consultants as load of patients continued to swell. He said that the number of specialists was not enough in MTIs to examine all visitors that could impact quality of healthcare negatively.

A surgeon told this scribe that promotion of the existing staff would pave way for recruitment of doctors on junior positions. He said that about 80 per cent posts of medical officers were vacant in MTIs.

MTIs Policy Board had asked the chairpersons of respective BoGs to initiate the process of selecting doctors for promotions and recommend criteria for promotion.

The board in its meeting had agreed that the existing criterion for promotions was very strict and couldn’t be met by many people.

Therefore, such criterion should be adopted that was neither too stringent nor too flexible. After the directives of Policy Board, MTIs initiated the process of faculty promotion.

Doctors said that barring BoGs from taking major steps was a decision taken on political basis as the boards assumed significant positions in health sector. The caretakers had replaced all-powerful BoGs when the PTI government ended in the province. Now, PTI will again replace the existing BoGs of MTIs soon.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2024