PESHAWAR, April 20: The provincial health department is likely to restore the share of staff in income from user charges in public hospitals, officials said here on Tuesday.

The government had abolished the share of doctors and paramedical staff from user charges in the light of a decision taken by the provincial cabinet in October followed by a formal notification issued on Oct 17, 2003.

The decision had affected staff, including pathologists, radiologists, laboratory assistants, technicians, radiographers and dispensers at government-run hospitals all over the province.

It was learnt that senior radiologists and pathologists in the city hospitals had also written a letter to the chief secretary, requesting for the restoration of their share from the user charges.

The health department on March 24, constituted a review committee, headed by the dean of the Post-graduate Medical Institute, Prof Dr Arshad Javid, with chief executives of the Khyber Teaching Hospital, Lady Reading Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex, besides heads of the radiology and pathology departments as its member to review the decision.

The committee, an official at the health department said, had submitted its report to the secretary health on Tuesday, strongly recommending the restoration of the paramedical staff's share from user charges.

Recommendations made by the committee suggested that restoration of share was important because its abolition had adversely affected the performance of diagnostic units of the public sector hospitals.

It said that share from user charges was an incentive to the staff involved in the diagnostic procedures of the patients, which improved their performance. The committee, the same official said, had recommended a revised formula for sharing it (user charges) with the staff. Previously, the income from the users' charges was split at the ratio of 60:40 (government: staff).

Under the recommended revised formula, sources said, the cost of the investigation would be reimbursed to the government while the rest of the amount thus generated would be shared by the government, doctors, paramedics and respective hospitals.

According to the new formula, the user charges would now be split like this: 40 per cent to the government, 40 per cent reserved for doctors, 15 per cent for paramedics and five per cent for hospital.

It was recommended for morning shift, while in the evening shift, the committee has recommended decrease in the depreciation charges by the government, which would enable the paramedics to draw a larger share.

The government at the time of the abolition of staff's share had hinted that the staff would be entitled to receive a share from patients, who are admitted to private hospital rooms. The committee also recommended that the share should be extended to the doctors and other subordinate staff from the amount collected from all paying patients, the source told this correspondent.

Conceding that there was no representative of the paramedics in the review committee, he said that these recommendations, would benefit paramedics more than the doctors. The same official said that the suggestions of the committee, were most likely to be implemented, because it had worked hard to compile these recommendations.