PESHAWAR, Aug 10: More than a dozen doctors have been employed against the clinical posts at the government-owned hospitals in the city in clear violation of rules as they have completed their degrees in research and do not qualify for clinical jobs, according to sources.

These doctors had been working in hospital wards as consultants and also ran their private clinics where they charged Rs300 as consultation fee from each patient, said the sources.

Not only that the patients suffer but the doors of promotions for the qualified lot of doctors have also been closed, according to the sources.

“In clinical medicine, there are two kinds of qualifications; clinical and research,” said the sources. Clinical qualifications are like FCPS, FRCS, MRCP, MRCOG, DGO, MCPS, etc., whereas other degrees which are awarded when some research work is carried out in one particular field.

For instance, a cardiologist might carry out a research that one particular drug is superior to the other in controlling blood pressure. On the basis of this thesis he/she is awarded a PhD or MPhil degree in research, these degrees are regarded as additional qualifications which give weightage to clinical qualifications of the individuals.

But these degrees alone do not make a person eligible to do clinical practice, if he/she hadn’t a degree in clinical medical branch before. Likewise, these degrees which are awarded after completion of some research do not make a doctor eligible to occupy a clinical post at official hospitals.

Unfortunately, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) in the past, had off and on recognised these degrees as equivalent to clinical degrees at the whim of powerful ones. They are only qualified to work as researchers or as demonstrators in medical colleges.

Examples of such cases abounded and some of the influential doctors had even climbed up the ladder of professorship, said the sources.

Giving stances, the sources said majority of the doctors, who worked at the city’s hospitals as urologists, had acquired their degrees in research.

Likewise, the city’s hospitals have consultants in ENT, Dermatology, Oncology and Cardiology, who do not qualify to be called clinical consultants, but still they have managed to survive and reach to the top slots.

All consultants at one of the ward at the biggest hospital of the city happen to have done their degrees in research.

Not only this but some of the consultants in Orthopaedics and Gastroenterology wards in the teaching hospitals are not entitled to be posted as consultants on clinical side, according to the sources.

The list is even longer, because in the periphery several district specialists have been selected for clinical posts on the same grounds.