PESHAWAR, March 4: Thousands of paramedics employed in government-owned healthcare institutions across the province have no proper service structure and most of them retire in the same grade in which they are appointed, office-bearers of the paramedical association told Dawn.
“This is an awesome situation. More than 6,000 paramedics including dispensers, X-ray, ECG and laboratory technicians and operation theatre and anaesthesia assistants have no service structure and most of them retire from the service in the same grade in which they get appointment,” deplored Sirajuddin Burki, provincial president, PMA, NWFP.
According to him, the paramedics along with doctors and nurses constitute a healthcare network and without their help it is impossible to run even a small dispensary, let alone a teaching hospital. It is a tell-tale example of the step-motherly attitude, they are getting that only 100 people have been gone to grade 16 after decades of services, he disclosed.
They are part and parcel of patients’ care system. Be it investigations of the patients, their pre-operations and post- operation care till their discharge from the hospital, the role of paramedics is that of a tri-wheeler along with doctors and nurses in health delivery system. Despite their basic and desired training for the jobs, they are doing, many paramedics have got higher qualifications like MA, MSc, BA and BSc but to no avail.
The government, which until now was conferring an additional increment on additional qualification to the government sector employees, has also withdrawn that incentive.
Paramedics after passing their matriculation examination (science group) used to take one year training at government hospitals in about 10 various disciplines after which they took examination that was conducted by NWFP Medical Faculty. The faculty had been established in 1970 but its role was not as effective as that of nursing board, which also offer postgraduate diplomas in various specialties. Most of the candidates often complain of errors in gazette book and out of course question papers because the understaffed and ill-equipped faculty is housed in two tiny rooms which is difficult to take care of all matters in an error-free manner.
So, after getting through the said examination, they were appointed in grade-6 and most of them retire in the same grade even after serving for 25 long years. Many a times, different governments to make recommendations with a view to provide a baseline to paramedics formed committees.
Finally, to improve the standards of their education and make their promotion chances bright, a task force was constituted in 1997 which ultimately recommended the stoppage of one year training and made recommendations to the government to open colleges for paramedics so that they could get higher education.
The then chief minister inaugurated four colleges, one each in Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan, Abbottabad and Swat in March 1999. These colleges operate under the Provincial Health Services Academy, offer degrees as well as diplomas in different branches of medical technologies to the paramedics.
Much to the chagrin of paramedics, the government was ousted and the programme, it had launched remained in doldrums. Now, about 200 paramedics have graduated from the same colleges but they are unsure about their promotion into next grades.
Initially, it had been planned the graduates from these institutions would be offered jobs as lecturers in these colleges. Additionally, the scant teaching facilities at these colleges coupled with lack of coordination among its teachers and Medical Faculty which is conducting the examinations, the purpose of the whole exercise seemed to have fallen on wayside. The aim behind the opening of colleges was that to train paramedics and impart them higher skills to enable them to serve the people in a better way. Another aim was also the long-standing demand of the paramedics to provide them opportunities of promotion in their service.
The office-bearers of the PMA argue that they have no representation in health administration, which is hampering their progress. Nonetheless, the doctors, nurses, Hakims and even homeopaths have got their respective councils that are making efforts for the promotion of their respective people. Not that but scants teaching facilities and lack of textbooks and laboratories etc, at these institutions offer very little to the students.
“It is the animosity of the doctors that we are lagging behind. They write our ACRs (annual confidential reports). The main thing we want to get is a representative body of our own at the administrative level so that it could protect the rights of the employees,” said an office-bearer of the PMA.
The seniority lists of the paramedics, which are sent to the provincial government from time to time for promotion, are also not updated. There is a dire need to offer them more incentives, more so because the recently announced institutional-based practice by the provincial government also rests on their complete cooperation.
“By giving education to the paramedics we can get rid of quackery which has assumed alarming proportions. The government should acknowledge the fact that about 80 per cent of the rural population is dependent on paramedics for their healthcare needs,” said a retired surgeon who suggested that a special ordinance be promulgated to pave the way for the solution of paramedics’ problems.
