PESHAWAR, Jan 15: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is launching an initiative to allow senior registrars and consultants of the teaching hospitals to launch private practice at their respective institutions in the evening to not only earn some extra bucks but also help add to the financial health of the hospitals.
The new initiative 'Evening Paid Patient Services (EPPS) offers a choice to the consultants to opt for practice at the state-run hospitals. The decision was taken at a meeting of the health department held here on Saturday, according to a press release.
Keeping in mind the failure of the institution-based practice (IBP) in the past we are now taking all measures to make the new programme acceptable to the senior registrars who weren't allowed private practice before, said the press release quoting Prof Noorul Iman, special secretary of the health department, who chaired the meeting. Chief executives of Khyber Teaching Hospital, Hayatabad Medical Complex and Mardan Medical Complex attended the meeting.
“So it's an opportunity for them to polish their skills and at the same time serve people in highly best environment at the teaching hospitals”, said Prof Iman.
He said that like the IBP introduced in early 2003, process of consultation under the new programme would also be carried out to ascertain consent of doctors before going for implementation of the new initiative.
Prof Iman said under the EPPS, senior registrars of KTH, Lady Reading Hospital, HMC Peshawar and Ayub Medical Complex Abbottabad would start private practice in the outpatients departments of these hospitals in the evening. They will charge Rs300 per patient, out of which, 10 percent would go to common pool for auxiliary staff, 30 percent to the institute and 60 percent to the respective doctor, he explained.
“The motive behind re-establishing private practice at government hospitals in the evening neither aims at making money not doing politics but to deliver quality healthcare in a reasonable fee,” Noorul Iman said.
With new mechanism the public sector hospitals will work for at least 16 hours. Presently, the hospitals work only for 8 hours.