T HIS is apropos the news item `KP medical teachers now have to compete for promotions` (Nov 15). In the past 65 years no serious attempts have been made to improve the conditions of major public sector hospitals of the country.
Owing to lacl< of financial support, infrastructure, doctors,nurses,qualiñed supporting staff, labs and machinery, these healthcare units are unable to provide even the basichealthcarefacilities to patients.
In most teaching public-sector hospitals, doctors with academic ranks such as professors only work part time, from 10am to 1pm. The rest of their time is spent inprivate practice. After 1pm most publicsector hospitals give a deserted look as hospitals provide only emergency services.
The decision by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government of linking appointments and promotion of academic rank doctors to clinical work, research and education will help a lot in improving the working conditions of these hospitals.
As a professor of a major private teaching hospital of the country, I agree that seniority alone should not be the sole criterion for promotion.
The KP government also needs to be congratulatedfor taking anotherbold initiative asking senior doctors to do practice within the hospital premises after 2pm. These additional clinics in the afternoon will benefit many patients.
