LAHORE: In a mega medical scam, hundreds of doctors from private hospitals/institutes have completed their illegal/unauthorised postgraduate training and house job at the Services Hospital Lahore, blasting the Central Induction Policy and the rules under the nose of the senior medical teachers of the state-run medical institute.

Of them, 366 doctors of the private hospitals completed the unauthorised training and managed to get experience certifications while 107 others did house job at Services Hospital.

As per rules, for the PG training, only the doctors from the government medical institutes are allowed induction in the state-run hospitals through the Central Induction Policy, a criterion for selection of postgraduate residents in the public hospitals across the province.

The induction takes place twice a year with selection based purely on merit defined in Punjab Residency Programme (PRP) formula, notified by the health department. Not only this, such doctors of private medical institutes got away with stipend equal to the salary of a BPS-17 officer from the Services Hospital while they were enrolled in postgraduate programmes at the private institutes.

The most disturbing part of the illegal practice was that the College of Physicians & Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) equally shared its role as all the 366 doctors from the private hospitals were recommended by the CPSP for training at the Services Hospital while the professors/heads of the various units/disciplines concerned of the hospital were also allegedly a part of the entire scam of the illegal postgraduate training and house job.

Paying hefty amounts to private colleges, they did training/house job at Services and got BPS-17 pay; health dept launches probe

According to some reports, some elements from the Young Doctors Association (YDA) of the Services Hospital were behind the induction of the unauthorised training and house job of the doctors from the private hospitals, starting from 2016.

According to the official documents, all 366 doctors have not only completed their PG training but also managed to obtain their certifications, a scam that may involve a huge network behind the illegal inductions of private medics in the government hospital. The scam was unearthed in the report of an inquiry conducted by the hospital, a copy is available with Dawn.

These medics completed PG training in various specialties, including nephrology, medicine, surgery, gynae, anaesthesia, pulmonology, plastic surgery etc. The documents revealed that they had come from private hospitals, including the National Hospital Lahore, Ghurki Trust & Teaching Hospital Lahore, Fatima Memorial Hospital, Avicenna Medical College, Omar Hospital & Medical Centre, Shalimar Hospital, Hameed Latif Hospital, Allama Iqbal Memorial Hospital, Shaukat Khanum Hospital, Ittefaq Hospital, University College of Dentistry Lahore, Kishwar Fazal Teaching Hospital Sheikhupura, etc.

Some senior officials pointed out the issue, especially the CPSP’s role being a national regulatory body, saying it was responsible for ensuring the standards and providing the facilities available in the institutions to maintain quality training for its trainees.

“Why has the CPSP failed so far in providing postgraduate training to the doctors of the private institutes in their respective health facilities despite charging hefty amounts/fees from them against various services, including PG training?” an official asks.

If the private hospitals mentioned above have no faculty at their respective facilities and they were sending their doctors to the government hospitals for PG training, why the CPSP offered them postgraduate programmes, he adds.

During an investigation, the official says, it shocked many when it transpired that several doctors of the private hospitals who had completed PG training at the Services Hospital were also paid stipend equal to the salary package of a BPS-17 officer.

The payment of stipend to the doctors of the private hospitals from the government exchequer in the Services Hospital is another bigger crime that must be investigated at a higher forum, comprising impartial officers, he suggests, adding that those responsible for these blatant violations should also be punished as per their shared role.

The initial inquiry report of the blatant violations of unauthorised PG training and house job has been sent to the Punjab health department for action. In the report, the institute attached the list of 366 doctors with names, date and period of their PG training against the specialties and the private hospitals/institutes they belonged to.

“It is submitted that these PGRs had applied for rotation from private institutes to the Services Hospital Lahore for training in different faculties,” reads the report.

It pointed out with grave concern that the parent institutes of these doctors have not got the required faculty but they inducted the postgraduate residents for training.

“This is grave violation of the PG trainees policy/guidelines,” reads the report further unveiling that the private institutes from where the doctors came for training had no memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Services Hospital Lahore.

About the house job, the report said, a ‘house job committee,’ notified by the Services Hospital, held a meeting on Nov 7, 2023 for supplementary MBBS examination 2023 and inducted its own 200 candidates as per the available seats later on Nov 16.

“It has come to notice that the 107 doctors (from private institutes) are doing their house job in different wards/units without any approval from the House Job Committee,” reads the report.

It says that they were ‘unauthorisedly’ working in the wards and any clinical/non-clinical mishap shall have repercussions for the Services Hospital administration.

Services Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Munir Malik has confirmed to Dawn that the grave violations have been unearthed in the induction of the illegal/unauthorised PG training and house job, saying he has sent a report to the health department for further action.

A senior officer of the Punjab health department says the authorities have launched investigations into the scam as reported by the Services Hospital Lahore. He says the health secretary has constituted a three-member committee of senior officers of the department.

The additional secretary (establishment) of the specialised healthcare department Punjab has been made its convener while the deputy secretary (budgets & accounts and the director finance of the Punjab Institute of Cardiology are its members.

The official says the committee has been directed to start proceedings as per the terms of references elaborated/defined in the notified committee.

“The committee shall collect the evidence and fix responsibility regarding violation of the department’s policy,” he adds.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2024