PESHAWAR, Dec 9: The NWFP Health Department has been urged to abolish the posts of senior registrars or ban private practice by them. Sources said that the chief executives of Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) have sent letters to the health secretary asking him to place a ban on private practice by senior registrars (SRs).

The letters said that the federal government had created the posts of senior registrars in public sector hospitals with a view to providing services of specialist doctors in the evening and night shifts and, therefore, all the provincial governments created the posts in 1974.

Senior registrars (SRs) were appointed in BPS-18 after postgraduate qualification in various medical disciplines, the letters said, adding that it had been noted with concern that the doctors working as SRs at the teaching hospitals in the city were running private clinics.

Under the rules of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), the SRs are not allowed to do private practice, it said, adding that the Sindh government had already abolished the posts of SRs due to their involvement in private practice.

A senior health official said that SRs and assistant professors were appointed in BPS-18, but the senior registrars had given an undertaking at the time of their appointments that they would not do private practice till their promotion as assistant professors.

The sources said that the heads of various medical, surgical, children, orthopaedic, neurosurgical, orthopaedic, gynae and psychiatry units had forwarded complaints, from time to time, that the SRs in their respective wards had not been working in the evening and night shifts depriving patients of specialist doctors at the teaching hospitals.

They had also complained that like professors, they also charged Rs300-400 consultation fee. Last year, the provincial health department had issued notification regarding consultation fee, in which the SRs’ fee had been fixed at Rs50, but to the day the doctors.

The letters had stated that most of the patients faced complication due to the non-availability of specialist doctors and the patients had to be attended to by house officers, who were not the right people to cope with medical emergencies independently.

The other three provinces had long abolished the posts for similar reasons, therefore the letters strongly recommended to the government to either abolish the posts of SRs or place a complete ban on their private practice.