PESHAWAR: The decision of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to start institution-based practice (IBP) at the teaching hospitals has worried the owners of private medical centres as they fear that the new mechanism will harm them financially.

`We have been receiving requests from the owners of private medical centres to oppose the government`s move about IBP in hospitals,` a senior physician told Dawn. According to him, there are about 100 small and big buildings in the city which house private clinics where doctors from the teaching hospitals do private practice in the evening.

However, the provincial health department introduced the new law a few months ago with a view to change the 70-year-old rotten healthcare system and put in place a newmechanismtoimprovepatients` care at the state-run hospitals.

Besides other major decisions,the new law also seeks to start IBP in the ofhcialhospitalsin the evening, which has sent chills down the spines of the people, who have constructed huge buildings where doctors not only examine the patients but also operate on them. `The owners will lose their income because several senior consultants have opted to sit in the hospitals for IBP instead of their private medical centres,` the physician said.

The government is in the process of launching the new system to start private practice of doctors in four teaching hospitals including Khyber Teaching Hospital, Hayatabad Medical Complex and Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar and Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad within a month.

Half of the senior doctors, including professors, associate and assistant professors had already opted to start IBP in their respective hospitals. The health department has selected 10-member Governing Body for each of the four hospitals toimplement the new law and put in place effective healthcare system.

The move is considered in the right direction by many senior doctors because they say that it is professionally as well as financially beneficial for them.

A senior surgeon said that currently, he was doing private practice in Dabgari Gardens, Peshawar after 4pm where he examined a patient on receiving consultation fee of Rs800.

`When I advise investigations to the patients, the income goes to the private centre and there is every likelihood that investigations can be faulty because there can be unqualified people. On contrary, the government is allowing us to get consultation fee from the patients at the hospital, then why should I continue privately,` he said.

The surgeon said that in hospitals, they would also receive part of the income generated from the investigations of patients. `And the staff at the hospitals` laboratories isalso qualihed because the government`s employees cannot be unqualified,` he said.

Unlike the privately-run outlets, the government-owned hospitals have huge infrastructure with all latest facilities that can be used for the benefit of the patients as well as the staff.

A pediatrician said the owner of the centre where he ran a clinic in the evening was unhappy over the new system in the hospitals and was offering incentives to the doctors to stay. `But why should I be travelling to Dabgari Gardens in the evening when the government gives more facilities in the hospital,` he said.

A manager of a private centre told Dawn that he had constructed the building specifically for doctors, which housed clinics, laboratories and operation theatres that would become deserted if the government`s plan succeeded. He said that many doctors had assured him that they would sit at his centre in the evening.