PESHAWAR, Oct 2: After attaining the financial and administrative autonomy, the administration of the Khyber Teaching Hospital will start giving salaries to the staff members from this month. Previously, the NWFP accountant-general office used to give salaries to the hospital staff.

“As the hospital has been granted financial and administrative autonomy by the government after the enforcement of the NWFP Heath and Institutions Reforms Ordinance, 2001, all the employees of the hospital, including, doctors, paramedics, nurses and ward orderlies, etc., would now get their salaries from the hospital for this month and onward,” Dr Zahir Shah, chief executive of the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) told Dawn.

According to him, the measure had been taken to handle all the hospital affairs and to facilitate the employees of the hospitals, as previously they had to settle their financial matters in the accountant-general’s office.

Fearing an encroachment on their financial benefits, the combined association of the KTH, including paramedics and clerks, had given a strike call for Oct 8 which was withdrawn on Wednesday following a meeting between the  leaders  of the association  and  the  KTH administration.

“The CE of the KTH has assured us that justice would be done to the employees in the new arrangements and we called off the proposed strike. There are some loopholes but we would wait and see,” said Mohammad Ashfaq Yousafzai, president of the paramedical association. According to him, they were not given the pay slips from the hospital which they used to receive every month from the accountant general office. Mr Yousafzai said general provident (GP) fund, which was deducted from their salaries on monthly basis, was not deducted at the hospital and the employees withdrew their salaries on plain account file. According to him, it would not be financially viable for the employees to deduct the GP fund of several months from their salaries at a later stage in one go.

The KTH administration told Dawn that they had run out  of stationery for which tenders had been sought and the pay slips for all the staff would be prepared as soon as they get the stationery. An official of the hospital said the employees would be given salaries from the Bank of Khyber branch which had been established inside the hospital.

The employees also argue that they had no confidence in banks, because several banks had deprived the employees of their hard-earned money after they turned bankrupt. They said their money was safe in the accountant general office, because it was a government-owned department and had been handling such affairs over the years.

The CE of the KTH, however, set aside the impression, saying that the employees would have no problem in withdrawing their money from the bank. The employees, he said, would feel better treatment through new arrangement. Meanwhile, the city’s largest hospital, Lady Reading Hospital, have also made similar arrangements to deal financial matters locally. There are also similar complaints from the employees regarding their future hardships in connection with  their financial matters.