PESHAWAR, Feb 13: The NWFP government’s decision to ban private practice of serving doctors is receiving overwhelming response from the masses, who want the decision to be implemented in all seriousness.

“The doctors community is fleecing the poor patients and acting as a commercial group rather than professional,” commented one attendant while talking to Dawn during a visit to a city hospital on Wednesday.

Bashir Khan, a local transporter remarked: “People back the provincial government decision which would facilitate the downtrodden.”

The provincial health department put a complete ban on government doctors’ private practice the other day, and asked the serving doctors of all cadres to close their private clinics within 15 days. The government will take disciplinary action if the doctors did not abide by the order.

The provincial government had introduced institutional private practice in four teaching hospitals of the province last year. But the non-cooperative attitude of the doctors made the programme a non-starter, said an official of the health department.

Keeping in view the stubborn attitude of the serving doctors, the provincial governor took this “bold” decision, according to the official. But owing to the influence of senior doctors, some officials at the health department fear that the decision might not take effect. Because, these doctors have been using the hospital wards and beds for their pecuniary gains, they say.

“Any doctor with highest qualifications like MRCP, FRCS and FCPS needs a job at a government-owned hospital in order to establish private clinic,” said a retired physician.

According to him, these doctors used to oblige their private patients by admitting them to government hospitals. The idea is not a new one and is in practice in military hospitals. Recently, the government of Punjab has also taken similar a decision in order to streamline the working of medical practitioners.

People say that private hospitals, which are no match of government-run health-care outlets, have mushroomed over the years due to the non-professional approach of senior consultants.

A few days back, one Sultan alleged that his daughter died on the operation table at a private hospital due to over-dosage of anaesthesia. The patient, it may be mentioned, had been operated upon at a two-room tiny hospital that was totally unfit for any kind of surgical intervention.

However, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has condemned the provincial government’s action and urged the governor NWFP to review what it called “one-sided decision.”

The PMA provincial council, which met here on Wednesday, believed that the ban on serving doctors’ private practice would not only affect the doctors community but also others, including chemists, clinical laboratories, hoteliers and vendors.

The PMA observed that the Punjab government banned only procedural practice in the province while the NWFP government had gone one step ahead and banned both prescription and procedure practices.

The meeting pointed out that the decision would over-burden the public sector hospitals.