PESHAWAR: Lack of incentives for emergency medicine specialists has been affecting proper management of critically-ill and injured patients in the hospitals of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to health experts.

“Emergency medicine specialists are totally dependent on their salary because they cannot do private practice. Seriously-ill and trauma-hit patients are brought to hospitals instead of clinics. Therefore, they require lucrative salary package to retain their services,” a senior doctor at accident and emergency department (A&ED) of a medical teaching institution told this scribe.

He said that doctors stayed away from taking up emergency medicine as career because they did not stand chances of promotion like their colleagues working in medicine, surgery, paediatric and other clinical specialties.

“This is the main problem that the province couldn’t develop good emergency departments,” he said. He added that emergency departments should be established and given academic status like any other medical department to pave the way for best trauma services, which could be replicated in militancy-stricken areas,” he said.

Experts say improved emergency services can reduce mortalities and disabilities

The senior doctor said that an emergency specialist, who had worked as consultant in UK for 15 years, was appointed director of A&ED at Lady Reading Hospital a few years ago and he not only developed services but also trained many doctors.

“Ultimately, he left the job because he was not given financial incentives due to which he went abroad where such specialist are most sought-after. Not only he but those, who had been trained by him, also went abroad,” he said.

The expert said that emergency physicians were in high demand in foreign countries where they received lucrative packages but in Pakistan they were not treated at par with otter specialists.

“We need specialists with skills to give prompt care to critically-ill people and save lives, because the province is prone to terror incidents and natural calamity like floods,” he said.

A senior physician claimed that mortalities and disabilities could be reduced to a certain level by improving emergency services through training of healthcare workers. He said that improvement of emergency services could also put brakes on increasing number of morality from mother and children ailments.

“Serious patients develop more complications while being transported from the sites of bombs and suicide attacks or road traffic accidents but a strong emergency care system will improve survival rate,” he said.

Another senior doctor at Khyber Medical University Hospital and Research Centre said that they were in the process to launch emergency department that would be connected with all 13 campuses of KMU in the province.

“Skill development alongside practical work is very important to enhance the techniques of personnel and cut down mortality from avoidable causes. Better emergency care can ensure batter management of patients with stroke, high blood pressure and heart attacks etc,” he said.

He said that well-managed, fully staffed and equipped emergency departments were needed in all hospitals to cope with the rising number of critically-ill people due to disasters. The system needs to be backed by efficient mechanism of transportation to shift patients to hospitals in emergencies and improve their survival chances.

He said that post-emergency care and rehabilitation of patients were also required. Enhancing the level of techniques of doctors, nurses and paramedics on various aspects of trauma and management of patients could lead to marked improvement as emergency consultants knew ways and techniques to handle different emergencies, he said.

“We have the services of an emergency physician with experience in foreign countries to develop state-of-the-art emergency department. Soon, we will conduct basic life support courses for our staff to enable them to save lives through standard services,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2026