PESHAWAR, March 10: Following the ban on private practice of the public sector doctors, the NWFP government is making preparations to regularize business of private medical practitioners under the NWFP Private Medical Institutions (Regulation of Services) Ordinance 1984, official sources told Dawn.

“Arrangements are afoot to make the private sector doctors strictly go by procedure and rules laid down for them under the ordinance,” said a senior health department functionary.

The move aims at controlling the mushroom growth and unchecked business of the private doctors, medical centres, clinics, pathological laboratories and medical equipment installed in the private sector.

Schedules A, B, C, D and E of the ordinance provide criteria for registration of medical centres, and rules to control their functioning.

Although the rules and procedures were laid down back in 1984 to regulate the private sector doctors, their implementation remained a far cry as health facilities set up in abundance in the private sector went unchecked from government agencies’ concerned.

“It is evident that regulatory side of the private practice is very weak which indicates that executive district officers (health)  -  delegated regulatory functions under the recently introduced devolution of power plan - have not been able to perform their functions satisfactorily because of the fact that doctors in the private sector represent strong lobbies, and EDOs (health) cannot bear their pressure to resist reform,” contained an official document available with Dawn.

To improve the regulatory framework and ensure its implementation, the NWFP Health Department has suggested the government to form a special body in the name of ‘Private Medical Institutions Vigilance Committee’.

The committee would act as a regulatory body, and help implement the rules and procedures already existed.

Terms of reference stipulated for the nine-member regulatory body include revision of the criteria laid down under the ordinance for the registration of medical institutions in the private sector, and making recommendations for the government on measures to improve and properly regulate healthcare being extended in the private sector.

The committee would also be responsible for drafting a proposal to form a permanent regulatory body for the provincial health sector.

“This regulatory body may well be a commission or a council,” said the official sources.

The vigilance committee would be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, whereas its other members would include provincial government officials, representatives of the private sector and a journalist.