PESHAWAR: Patients have been getting prompt and better diagnostic and treatment services under the institutionbased practice (IBP) at the Lady Reading Hospital and Khyber Teaching Hospitals than in the private sector health outlets, but there is stilla shortage of senior consultants for many specialties to get the desired results and cater to the growing number of patients.

The private medical practice is fraught with malpractices where the patients shuttle between different buildings inDabgari Gardens, which houses 80 per cent of the private health facilities, because they are referred to certain diagnostic centres.

The patients coming to the two government hospitals are feeling the difference because they receive all the services on the same premises and aren`t sent from one place to another.

In private sector, patients are examined by a doctor in one building and then sent to another one for an ultrasound, X-ray, blood tests, etc. while in some cases commission s also claimed by the doctors. Charges for tests vary from laboratory to laboratory, while in the government hospitals all the patients pay a uniform fee.

The teaching hospitals allow only its consultants to do IBP in the evening and take fee approved by the administration, while in private sector doctors charge high fee despite not being quali-fied to do so.

In private sector, with a few exceptions, there is no guarantee while the investigations carried out at the hospitals are authentic because the people doing the testshave the required qualiñcations.

The diagnostic services offered under the IBP to patients are more reliable than those given in the market where unqualified people work. In government hospitals, the full-fledged departments exist which operate only in the morning prior to start of the IBP.

In hospitals, patients pay the same fee, but don`t have to go outside for investigations because of the huge infrastructure.

Physicians say that the main aim of IBP is to provide intensive care to the people who otherwise suffer in the private sector outlets.

There is no intensive care unit or cardiac care unit in Dabgari Gardens health centres though about 30 operation thea-tres exist there.

The teaching hospitals have got the ICU, CCU and facilities for mother and child care. The LRH started IBP in mid 2016 and over 10,000 patients have been examined since then. The KTH began it a few days ago. The IBP is an integral part of the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act 2015 to utilise the hospital infrastructure which remains unused in the evening and night shifts except for emergencies.

Despite proven benefits of IBP for the patients, the government is finding it hard to award additional financial benefits to consultants to enlist their support. Both the LR H and KT H lack senior consultants in all specialties to attract more patients.

In LRH, 80 per cent of the patients coming to IBP are seen by four consultants who have thriving clinics outside. The Hayatabad Medical Complex is yet to start IBP.