PESHAWAR: Implementation of the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act, passed by the provincial assembly last year to improve patients` care in public sector hospitals, remains far from implementation in the face of non-existence of an infrastructure to make things happen, according to sources .

In January, the government issued a notification to enforce the MTIRA and replace the 70-year-old system by making drastic changes, but the situation has deteriorated instead, they said.

The four teaching hospitals -Khyber Teaching Hospital, Lady Reading Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar and Ayub Teaching Hospital Abbottabad -selected for the MTIRA are yet to witness any change. The appointment of interim people on the posts of medical and hospital directors has proved to be an exercise in futility.

Recruitment of permanent persons on these positions has been stalled by lawsuits against the new law.

Under the law, six directors are to be appointed to put into practice the MTIRA at the designated hospitals. They will run the hospitals upon the advice of the 10-member board of governors. The interim persons have made some progress but are unable to take major steps, like starting evening OPDs for which more than 50 per cent consultants have opted.

Prof Nausherawan Burki, who has been tasked by PTI chief Imran Khan to implement one of his pet projects in the province, has frequently been visiting Peshawar and Abbottabad. He has ably convinced the employees by incorporating 13 amendments to the law in the light of objections raised by the employees.

The court has fixed September 19 to take up petitions filed by teachers and paramedic associations against the law. The BoGs heavily rely on the government to plead the case before the jury effectively and pave way for implementation of the law. Court had stayed the implementation of the law.

A senior professor told Dawn that it was easy for the government to get the stay vacated by providing the relevant documents, MTIRA copy and other relevant materials to the court but lack of coordination among the BoG members and health department has resulted in prolonged delay.

The LRH has completed the process of selection of directors but it faced bureaucratic hurdles in carrying out civil work to refurbish OPDs, air-conditioning system, lifts, etc in line with the law. Some minute changes are also taking place in Abboottabad.