PESHAWAR, Sept 11: Favouritism, political pressure and a negative bureaucratic attitude are discouraging qualified and experienced specialists, junior specialist doctors say.

"Many specialists are denied postings in the health department in accordance with their qualifications because of these considerations," a doctor said.

He alleged that a doctor, who completed FCPS studies in dermatology, was earlier posted in a remote basic health unit, adding that after a long struggle, he was able to get himself posted at one of the teaching hospitals in the city.

"He is the only doctor in the Frontier province who has so far passed FCPS in dermatology. The least he deserved was the post of a senior registrar. The government should have encouraged him," he said.

Another doctor insisted that there was no genuine skin specialist in any of the city's hospitals and doctors posted there as consultants possessed short-course diplomas from Austria or the UK.

"The College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan, allows none of the three dermatology wards (in major hospitals) to train postgraduates as there is no one who can supervise the trainees," another source said.

"There are instances where doctors having only three- to nine-month diplomas have been elevated to the rank of professors while people with genuine degrees have been denied postings," an official at the health secretariat said.

He said that a new unit had been created a few years ago to accommodate a surgeon wielding extensive political clout as a professor. The unit had earlier been abolished after the retirement of a surgeon.

Sources said that several consultants had migrated abroad following the bureaucracy's refusal to give them the right postings, adding that patients suffered most because of the shortage of specialists at the city hospitals.

Sources cited the case of a surgeon, who worked as a senior registrar and left for Saudi Arabia not so long ago in protest when he was denied a suitable post. He was hoping to be promoted as an assistant professor. The post, which he considered was his due, was 'grabbed' by a junior surgeon with considerable political influence in violation of the rules and regulations.

They also recalled the frustration of a doctor, who was posted in the anaesthesia department of one of the city's major hospitals despite having completed FCPS in medicine. Recently, more qualified and experienced doctors were bypassed to elevate several doctors possessing inadequate qualifications or experience as assistant professors.

They also gave the example of a doctor with a masters in clinical sexology from the US who was working as a medical officer in the skin ward of a teaching hospital. He, they said, happened to be the first qualified sexologist in Pakistan, but accused senior dermatologists of blocking his posting as a consultant.