PESHAWAR, Dec 31: Health workers have not been issuing receipts for the fee they receive from the patients as users' charges at the public sector hospitals since the government withdrew the share of paramedical staff from the charges, sources said.

The government had withdrawn the share of doctors and paramedics from the users' charges about two months ago. "The pathologists, radiologists and their subordinate staff get their salaries and there is no justification for them to claim share in the charges," said an official.

The staff had been getting a share of 40 per cent in the charges since 1940. He said the government didn't pay share to the surgeons and physicians except for the private room patients.

"I was getting on an average Rs7,000 per month as share. My salary is Rs5,000," a technician said and confessed that he sometimes did not issue the notices and kept the charges.

A laboratory assistant was caught last month for not issuing receipt for a test and he was transferred to the morning shift. A clerk was booked for forgery in the receipt book at the X-ray department in a hospital.

He was suspended but reinstated owing to his connections with the authorities. An ECG technician is stated to have printed his own receipt book.