0
RAWALPINDI, Feb 17: The provincial health department will start the professional audit of doctors at public hospitals from next month, the Punjab health minister, Prof Dr Mahmood Ahmad Chaudhry, said here on Sunday.
Under the professional audit, the doctors would be asked to report the number of patients they attended to at the hospital and during their private practice, the number of procedures they performed, number of lectures they delivered, how many demonstrations they performed and the administrative and research work done by them.
The health department, he further disclosed, had also decided to regularize the private clinics and hospitals throughout the province.
These medical centres, he said, would be monitored through committees to see whether they conformed to the required standards or not.
“The government has decided to give various incentives to the private practitioners, but, at the same time we would also keep an eye on them that they do not falter,” he said.
Talking to journalists, he said the doctors at the public hospitals were involved in the pilferage of working hours for which they were suitably paid by the government.
No one, he asserted, could be allowed to cash government resources for personal benefits.
Absence of a system for accountability of “merchant doctors” had given rise to exploitation of the poor patients. Because of the unprofessional attitude of these people, he said, the heavily invested hospitals were being under-utilized and a misconception was perpetuated among the patients that the hospitals did not have proper equipment and other required resources.
The conditions at the mega-hospitals, the minister said, had over the years deteriorated despite advances in the medical field and investment by the government.
To a question, Dr Chaudhry said the number of doctors engaged in unethical activities was very less. But, these people through their conduct obstructed others willing to work, he added.
We have not assessed the exact loss being caused to the hospitals because of the unethical practices of doctors, however, the only gauge before the department is the suffering humanity that is not only unable to get treatment at the public hospitals, but is also humiliated, he said.
HE SAID: “I wish to make it clear to the health workers that all hospitals are property of the patients and these people deserve proper attention.”
He stressed that the initiation of professional audit should not be misconstrued as a move based on vengeance, because besides punishing the defaulters all those doctors performing well would also be rewarded.
Talking about the objectives before the health department while initiating the massive health reforms programme, he said: “We focussed on improving quality of healthcare for the poor; raising medical education standards; safeguarding the infra- structure and working of the hospitals, updating the existing equipment; retaining the loyalty of the doctors to the hospitals; ending exploitation of poor patients through unnecessary procedures and documentation of the medical practice.
The health minister said the doctors should be very clear that only procedural practice had been banned and that they were free to do consultative practice.
“Our approach has been far more lenient than that of the NWFP government that has imposed a blanket ban on private practice,” he added.
Replying to a question about the continuity of reforms after the present government leaves office after the general elections, he said: “We have sensitized the masses and hopefully the public pressure will not allow anyone to revoke them.
“There might be few amendments in due course of time, but I do not think they would be ever scrapped altogether,” he added.
