PESHAWAR: The provincial government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has decided to bring back all the consultants, who quit their jobs at medical teaching institutions (MTIs) during caretaker government.

`To get back the services of the faculty members at all the MTIs, the vacant positions will be adver-tised soon,` a senior member of Board of Governor (BoG) at one of the MTIs, told Dawn.

According to him, during the last 18 months, about 50 consultants have resigned from their jobs at MTIs, which has dealt severe blow to patients` care in the province.

Lady Reading Hospital, the biggest healthfacility of the province, has suffered the most where about 20 specialists have left their jobs, citing differentreasons.

However, the main reason was lack ofsupportbycaretakergovernment during which the employees of teaching hospitals didn`t receive salaries on time, he said.

`Now after the formation of new government and replacement of oldBoGs, the situation in MTIs will improve as the government will issue funds in a timely manner and workers will receive salaries at the end of every month,` he said.

An assistant professor, who quit his position at one of the MTIs, told Dawn that not only late salary but the stoppage of Sehat Card Plus (SCP) forced him to call it a day.

`As the MTI law doesn`t allow consultants to do private practice outside, therefore, we were banking oninstitution-based practiceforour earnings where we admitted patients and operated on them on SCP, which was the only source of our income,` he said.

However, the SCP had also been stopped by the previous govern-ment due to which they had no option but to go abroad or start private practice outside the hospital after quitting jobs, he said.

He added that each surgeon received Rs500,000 to Rs1 million per month through institutionbased practice.

`Now, the SCP has been restored and I and my other colleagues wante d to join the MTIs again,` he said.

Prof Nausherwan Burki, the architect of MTI law, told Dawn that the first thing was lifting of ban on recruitments because they lost a large number of important faculty members. `We must reinstate them,` he added.

He said that reversal of several decisions taken by the previousBoGs against the spirit of the MTI law was also directed.

`The most important thing is to raise the morale of faculty and staff and assure them that we are back on track,` he added.

Prof Burki said that vacant positions would be advertised to recruit people, have left MTIs. `A letter has already been sent by MTI Policy Board, listing the recommendations from the previous board, which are now rescinded,` he said.

The PTI-led government had replaced all BoGs, except that of MTI Bannu and Peshawar Institute of Cardiology (PIC). The case relating to BoG in Bannu is sub-judice while chairmanoftheBoGofPICisbeingreplaced.

A physician at one of thePeshawar-based MTIs told this correspondent that there were about 2,000 health facilities in the province but people visited teaching hospitals that were covered under MTI Act. Therefore, the government needed to ensure presence of specialists, medicines and equipments at MTIs, he added.

He said that 10 MTIs in the province received more patients than non-MTI hospitals. `There is no referral system and patients come from far off districts to Peshawar directly to MTIs, which are meant for tertiary care. We need to strengthen primary and secondary care hospitals and put in place a proper referral mechanism to reduce burden on MTIs,` he said.