PESHAWAR, May 27: Many NWFP-based consultants have expressed concern over the share given to them under the institution-based practice (IBP), calling upon the government to devise a share- distribution formula as the one devised by the Punjab government.
Due to a much better share-distributing formula in Punjab, all the consultants have joined the newly-launched IBP there, a senior doctor at the Lady Reading Hospital said, while talking to Dawn on Monday.
He said the IBP had been started in Punjab in the state-run hospitals after its introduction in the NWFP, but the doctors in Punjab were completely satisfied because of the incentives given to them.
For instance, the consultants in Punjab were getting Rs300 as consultation fee as they received from patients at their private clinics, but the NWFP doctors were given 70 per cent of the consultation fee, he added.
Similarly, the Punjab doctors were allowed to admit patients to hospital wards under the IBP against Rs500 per day from which the their share was Rs100 per patient, he noted.
According to the doctor, the consultants also get Rs100 per visit from those patients, who are admitted to different wards and private rooms through the IBP.
That is the main reason that the doctor community accepted the government’s decision with regard to the IBP without any ifs and buts, while doctors in the Frontier are still protesting against the new system.
Many doctors have told Dawn that the NWFP government has started the IBP without any homework. According to them, there is no clear-cut policy and the absence of which has enraged them.
There are three formulas being executed at the three teaching hospitals of the Peshawar city. According to the formulae, the income made under the IBP is distributed among the hospital staffs, including doctors and paramedics.
All these hospitals have no admission policy for the patients under the IBP. The absence of such a policy has deprived the doctors and the paramedics of their shares.
Most of the senior most consultants have been protesting over the government’s move to introduce the IBP at the public sector healthcare institutions. They argue that apart from the low percentage of share, the government has not improved other facilities, which are necessary for patients. Lack of investigative equipment at the hospitals is the main problem because of which most consultants stay away from the IBP.
A case in point is the non-availability of the Echocardiogram machine at the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH). The absence of the machine has forced heart patients to take the tests from outside. Lately, a cardiologist, Dr Sayed Mohammad Jamal, brought to the hospital his own Echocardiogram machine to facilitate the patients.
According to Dr Jamal, head of the cardiology ward at the KTH, improved diagnostic and treatment facilities at the hospital would facilitate the patients and more and more patients would come here.
Another consultant at the Hayatabad Medical Complex informed Dawn that the government of Punjab discussed all matters with the doctors and accommodated their proposals whereas the NWFP health department had started accusing the doctors of tax evasion and fleecing patients from the first day of the IBP.
The doctor was of the view that the government showed bad intentions towards the doctors, forcing most of them to opt for retirement, let alone join the IBP.