PESHAWAR: In response to reports of previously unheard-of anomalies, the Health Department has prohibited medical teaching institutes from hiring new employees, promoting existing ones, or purchasing new merchandise.
In light of recent complaints of anomalies, the health minister wanted to prohibit the Board of Governors (BoGs) and other high-ranking officials of medical teaching institutes (MTIs) from making significant decisions, according to a notification released by the health department on Tuesday.
The department has informed each of the province’s ten MTIs that failure to follow the directives will heighten suspicions about anomalies. It stated, “Letter and spirit compliance may be ensured to avoid uninterrupted grant provision and cooperation by health department.”
The government of PTI has already resolved to replace its BoGs.
According to official sources, the directive was given at the demand of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s newly established provincial administration to stop MTIs from making significant decisions because their boards of governors (BoGs) were created by the caretaker government to replace the previous boards.
In order to implement its plan for health reforms, which began in 2015 with the enactment of the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act (MTIRA), the PTI government has already chosen to remove BoGs and pack MTIs with its own personnel.
“These boards have taken significant decisions during the last year and a half, including hiring, purchasing, firing, and promoting MTIs. Such purported anomalies have previously prompted inquiries. These choices will all be reversed, according to sources.
They stated that the MTIRA’s creator, Prof. Nausherwan Burki, will probably take over as chairman of the MTI Policy Board very soon. It is anticipated that he will return to work on the province’s unfinished health reform initiative.
When MTIRA was originally introduced at Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) and then expanded to other teaching hospitals and their associated medical and dentistry colleges, Prof. Burki served as chairman of the BoG of LRH.
According to sources, the government gave BoGs instructions on how to convince Prof. Burki, who was monitoring progress in MTIs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
They claimed that because they knew they would be replaced soon, the current BoGs likewise lost interest in their jobs. They stated that some of the BoGs had also overturned the rulings of earlier boards, and people impacted by these actions were waiting to be removed.
According to sources, the caretaker administration focused on MTIs in order to remove their influential BoGs and appoint its own officials. The caretaker government’s decision to dissolve the boards was met with opposition by a previous chief secretary and health secretaries, who claimed that the temporary administration lacked the authority to make policy choices.
Their protests were ignored, nevertheless, and new BoGs were chosen. Sources claim that during its two terms in office, the PTI government did not accomplish its reform objective in the province. PTI intended to enforce MTIRA more firmly when it was in office.
Doctors, nurses, and paramedics were among the stakeholders that fiercely opposed the PTI’s reform agenda, believing it was an attempt to privatize public hospitals and eliminate employee perks like pensions.
On the other hand, pro-MTI physicians contended that the law was designed to remove political meddling from teaching hospitals and provide them the administrative and political independence they need to enhance patient care. They said that since MTIs were governed by the government and received funding from it regularly, there was no intention to privatize.
