PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has extended Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act to Saidu wing of Saidu Group of Teaching Hospitals, Swat, and Khyber Institute of Child Health, Peshawar.

The decision was taken during the last cabinet’s meeting held with Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur in the chair on September 30. Both the public sector hospitals have been operating under health department. They will become autonomous as health department has been tasked to appoint members of Board of Governors (BoG) for each of these institutions.

“For selection of members of BoG, a meeting of search and nomination council will be called soon,” Health Secretary Shahidullah Khan told Dawn.

Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act (MTIRA) was passed by provincial assembly in 2015. It was subsequently enforced in 10 teaching hospitals of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in a phase-wised manner. A proposal was moved by Insaf Doctors Forum to make both the hospitals ‘medical teaching institutions’ (MTIs) on which the health department sought comments from heads of Saidu Group of Teaching Hospitals (SGTH) and Khyber Institute of Child Health (KICH) and both agreed subsequently.

The number of MTIs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reaches 12

With the extension of the law to two more health facilities, the number of MTIs in the province has reached 12.

According to the law, MTIRA covers the entire province and shall apply to all existing medical teaching institutions in public sector and such other institutions as government may establish or may have been established. Therefore, the government will face no issue in covering any institute under the law.

The proposal in this regard had already been vetted and approved by law department before cabinet’s approval which states that both SGTH and KICH require to be made MTIs to strengthen their capacity.

SGTH consists of central and Saidu wings. Both the wings of the hospital are located one kilometre apart. The central wing of the hospital has 233 beds and Saidu wing has 656 beds.

As per decision, the Saidu wing of the hospital and 110-bed Miangul Abdul Haq Jahanzeb Kidney Hospital Sangota, Swat, will be made MTI while the central wing will be declared a district headquarters hospital (DHQ).

Initially, the government had planned to convert SGTH into MTI as a whole but later it realised that establishment of district headquarters hospital was also mandatory for each district.

The central wing was a DHQ in the past that was merged with Saidu hospital to be able to make it a teaching hospital for Saidu Medical College, established in 1998, as per requirement of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council.

KICH, a project started 15 year ago, is yet to see light of the day. Officials said that the idea to convert it into MTI gained momentum after requests by paediatricians to expedite work on it.

KICH, currently working under health department but managed by BoG of Hayatabad Medical Complex, has been facing long construction delays. The BoG of HMC was “too busy to find time” to look into the issues of KICH, forcing Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) to demand a separate BoG for it to ensure its early completion, said officials.

They said that the institute was partially functional while 90 per cent of work on its affiliated 200-bed Child Hospital had been completed. They said that red tape had been a major cause for delay in its construction.

Work on the institute was started in June 2013 with the cost being estimated in PC-I at Rs2.2 billion. The PC-I was later revised and approved by Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) with a cost of Rs7.9 billion. Of the amount, Rs5.8 billion has so far been released, according to officials.

PPA office-bearers said that declaring it an MTI would pave the way of its completion as its BoG would take prompt decisions and the province’s first child health institute would ultimately start operations.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2025