ISLAMABAD, March 28: The federal government is working on a proposal to implement a national policy to institutionalize private practice of specialist doctors in the entire country.

“The government is waiting for the response of the provinces in this regard and the two provinces — Punjab and NWFP — have already informed about their decisions,” the federal health minister, Dr Abdul Malik Kasi, told Dawn.

Both the Punjab and NWFP had banned the private practice from January this year by restricting the doctors to do only evening practice on the hospital premises.

Dr Kasi said under the existing laws, the doctors working in public hospitals were not allowed to open private clinics or even to join a private clinic. “However, under the rules, the doctors can examine a patient at their residences.”

The minister, however, conceded that even the law was being violated, as the consultants or surgeons asked their patients to come to their private clinics in the evening where they charge huge fees.

There reports that most of the private clinics, where sensitive operations are performed, lack appropriate equipment or trained manpower to handle the machinery.

An informed source told Dawn that similar decision had been taken in India where the doctors had even threatened to quit their jobs.

A source in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) said the institute had opposed the idea on the pretext that hospital lacked proper infrastructure to provide facilities to the doctors for evening practice.

The decision was taken by the Pims authorities after holding a meeting of different faculties during which the senior doctors also threatened to resign en bloc if the decision was implemented.