PESHAWAR, May 29: The institution-based practice introduced by the NWFP government in all major public hospitals of the city recently has left the people desperate, as they are facing many difficulties in consulting good doctors.

While talking to Dawn, a large number of patients have deplored the government’s policy to make the doctors of the government hospitals join the institution-based practice (IBP).

Most of the renowned medical consultants have not opted for the IBP and are still pressurizing the government to abandon its newly-implemented policy, said a doctor at the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH).

“The main sufferers are the people, as they are not examined by the doctors, whom they wish to consult. Majority of the doctors, who sit in the evening at the hospitals are medical officers and those senior doctors, who have not been successful in running their private practice,” he remarked.

In fact, he said, the common people were the real losers, as they had to pay the same fee of Rs300, which they used to pay for treatment at private hospitals.

Imran, with his father at the Lady Reading Hospital, told Dawn that they would prefer their medical examination to be conducted at a private laboratory rather than at the government hospitals, but the reports of private laboratories were not accepted by the public ones.

Patients and visitors at the KTH were critical of the indifferent attitude of the administration and the hospital staff..

Babar, who brought his mother, suffering from osteoarthritis, said the lower staff were very rude, non-cooperative and often misguided the patients.

When he asked an orderly to tell him how he could get an OPT slip, the orderly pointed towards some sign boards and rudely said that those sign boards had been fixed for his guidance. When Babar got a slip, the authorities concerned misguided him by sending him to the orthopaedic ward instead of the orthopaedic OPD. To his great chagrin, he found the consultant absent at the orthopaedic OPD.

fund allocation: The Tanzeem Tahafuuz Haqooq-i-Chitral has lauded the decision of the NWFP government about the Lawari Tunnel and thanked the Governor for allocating Rs3000 million for the tunnel.

Speaking at a news conference, TTHC president Abdul Akbar expressed the hope that Gen Pervez Musharraf would soon inaugurate the resumption of work on the tunnel. He said President Musharraf was expected at Shandoor Fair in July and would also come to Chitral.

He said: “The credit goes to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who ordered construction of the tunnel in 1976. The Lawari Tunnel Organisation, a government agency, dug 1950 feet into the mountain. But in 1978, Gen Ziaul Haq regime stopped the work on the project.”

Now, the allocation of amount by NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah has cleared the way for the construction of the tunnel.