PESHAWAR:TheKhyberPakhtunkhwa Health Department enacted through the provincial assembly three new healthrelated laws in the outgoing year, but the process of implementation remained unsatisfactory due to hindrances created by the vested interests, official sources said.

These laws are supposed to improve the patient care and ensure safe availability of baby formula milk and quality drugs.

The Khyber Pakhtunlchwa Protection of Breastfeeding and Child Nutrition Act, 2015 was passed on Jan 9 after a prolonged delay, but there is no progress on its implementation. It aims to regulate sale of babyformula milk and make it binding on the manufactures to sell their products on pediatricians` prescription and stop media advertisements for the purpose.

On Jan 13, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Care Commission (HCC) Act, 2015 and Khyber Palchtunkhwa Medical Teaching Institutions (MTI) Reforms Act, 2015 were passed by the assembly, but the benefits are yet to reach common people as both faced delays.

The HCC Act is being amended after lacunas were found in it some four months ago, but the progress is painfully slow. The law seeking to regulate the sale of medicines, functioning of private clinics, hospitals, laboratories, etc, has been put on the back burner by the government despite efforts by the 10-member board of governors appointed to run the Healthcare Commission, the new body established in pursuance ofthelaw.

The commission is working under previous laws to take action against violators in collaboration with the district administration. Nevertheless, the province is requiredto make and implement its own laws after the passage of 18th amendment.

The sources say that there are little chances that a full-fledged commission will come into place in the foreseeable future. Despite efforts by the BoG members to make things happen, the government`s response isn`t up to the desired level, they said.

Lack of cooperation from the top level has hampered the plan to penalize violators of the law and it is just offering registration and licences to clinics, they said.

The same function was also performed by the Health Regulatory Authority, which stands abolished after implementation the HCC Act 2015.

The situation with regard to the MTI Reform Act 2015 is almost the same. It has been facing delays, first because of amendments and then the court cases against it due which it stands unimplemented.

Under the law, the government wants to do away with the decades old system and improve the patient care at the four teaching hospitals of the province. It enragedthe stakeholders, including doctors, nurses, paramedics, etc who filed a case against the law and obtained stay order due to which the law remains in the air since June. Ultimately, the Peshawar High Court dismissed all the cases a week ago and allowed the respective BoGs to translate the law into action.

Experts said that frequent changes at the top administrative level was also one of the reasons for delaying the pet project of PTI chairman Imran Khan, who had announcedtooverhaulthehealthcaresystem within a year.

The sources said that three secretaries of the health department had been changed during 2015. They claimed that the new secretary also faced problems in getting all the information about the new law and progress on them.

Political culture is also seen as one of the stumbling blocks in the government`s way to put into practice these laws which have been designed to free the hospitals from the influence of politicians and bureaucracy.