LAHORE: The ‘flawed’ policies, termination of contracts of hundreds of employees and appointment of a ‘controversial’ senior medical officer (BS-18) as chief executive officer (CEO) of the Punjab Health Facilities Management Company (PHFMC) on look-after basis has led to closure of nearly 1,000 primary level health units of Punjab.

There are reports that thousands of medics including anaesthetists, gynaecologists, pathologists, radiologists, pharmacists, charge nurses, technicians, security guards and other employees shut down the health facilities and went on strike to press the government to address their demands.

The PHFMC was running 1,396 rural health centres (RHCs) and the basic health units (BHUs) in 14 districts of Punjab including Lahore, Faisalabad, Hafizabad etc.

The PHFMC is a private limited company registered under section 42 of the Companies Ordinance 1984 and it operates through a CEO.

Protesting staff voice anger at PHFMCCEO for ‘skewed’ policies; minister says political appointees being removed

The employees were demanding immediate removal of the company’s CEO, holding him responsible for introducing ‘flawed’ policies which caused termination of the contracts of over 800 employees of PHFMC.

The closure of a large number of hospitals has led to suspension of all kinds of operations/surgeries and other treatment facilities to thousands of local poor and deserving patients.

The crisis further intensified when the authorities issued ‘warning letters’ to the doctors and other employees on strike of more departmental punishments instead of addressing their ‘legitimate’ demands.

“Reportedly, employees of the PHFMC are observing strike for their demands/service matters and they are creating hurdles in performance of duties of regular employees of the company”, reads an official letter issued by the health authorities.

It stated that due to the involvement of the employees on strike the indicators to be uploaded are not being filled.

Through the letter, the health authorities have sought list of the ‘troublemakers’ to initiate departmental action against them. (a copy of the warning letter is available with Dawn).

The employees alleged that the PHFMC terminated their contracts and moved a proposal to render many others jobless under a newly-drafted ‘skewed policy’.

They claimed that company CEO Dr Asim Altaf was behind all the ‘foul game’ saying he was holding additional charge for the last many months.

Everything was going well in the company before the appointment of the ‘irrelevant’, and ‘controversial’ officer, they said.

An official said originally a SMO of BS-18, Asim was serving as director nutrition at Integrated Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child Health (IRMNCH) Programme.

He was given the additional charge of the top post of the PHFMC when the regular CEO Naseem Sadiq tendered his resignation some months back.

He said the board of directors of the PHFMC had approved a proposal some four months back for the regular appointment of CEO and the chief finance officer of the company through an advertisement.

Several candidates applied for the two slots. The PHC had advertised the eligibility criteria for the posting of the CEO – the postgraduate degree in basic/social life/medical/management sciences from an HEC-recognised institute.

It had required experience of 20 years in general administration/ management/finance/planning and development budget/coordination at senior level.

However, some ‘influential’ officers of the health department halted the process and then shelved the scheme to facilitate Dr Asim as CEO on additional charge basis.

The official said the officer holding the additional charge of CEO did not have the required experience and qualification to run the financial and administrative affairs of the PHFMC which was handling annually Rs1.5 billion budget for the procurement of the medicines only for all primary level health facilities in 14 districts of Punjab.

In the absence of the regular CEO, the company introduced many ‘controversial’ policies to ‘victimise’ the employees of the RHCs and BHUs which led to the strike and then closure of all the facilities in Punjab.

The official said the PHFMC first terminated the contract of 300 employees, including senior medics, and then treated 500 others in the same manner.

He said the health facilities were also facing an acute shortage of medicines as the company failed to make timely procurement.

Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Minister Dr Jamal Nasir said PHFMC was an autonomous institute and it was informed that a majority of the employees including doctors and computer operators were hired in the past ‘on political affiliations’.

Consequently, the health minister said, the PHFMC decided to remove all of them and hire the new ones.

“According to my information so far, no one was terminated from service”, Mr Jamal Nasir said adding that he learnt the company was planning to fire many of them from jobs.

The second reason [for the strike] was that the employees wanted 35 per cent increase in their take-home salary which was also not a fair demand, he said.

The health minister said the company had offered them a ‘reasonable’ increase but they refused to accept it and went on strike to ‘blackmail’ the authorities concerned.

“Out of total Rs5.7 billion budget of the company, Rs4.8bn is spent on salaries,” he said adding that it was not possible to run a large number of health facilities with the remaining amount.

The minister said he has nothing to do with the appointment of a regular CEO as it is an issue of the company.

Published in Dawn, Aug 2nd, 2023