PESHAWAR: The health department has failed to fill over 60 per cent posts in the public sector healthcare institutions meant for doctors from the administrative cadre.

According to officials, the vacancies have caused administrative problems and badly hit patient care in hospitals and health centres.

They told Dawn that there were 551 sanctioned positions for doctors from the administrative cadre in the province but 343 of them had long been lying vacant.

The officials said the vacancies included 232 of the 334 BPS-18 posts, 75 of BPS-19, and 36 of the 42 in BPS-20.

They said the health department had created the administrative cadre in 2008 to appoint trained doctors to management positions and make service delivery effective.

Health dept officials insist filling of posts planned

The officials said the separation of administrative and clinical posts was meant to improve management in the healthcare system and make service delivery effective.

Recently, the Provincial Doctors Association wrote a letter to the health secretary asking him to fill those vacancies.

The officials said the Management Rules notified by the government were meant to appoint those trained and qualified in health management to the administrative positions, but the unavailability of doctors in required numbers had blocked the execution of the plan.

“We have requested the health department to fill the vacant posts through public Service Commission for the betterment of the health system,” chairman of the Provincial Doctors Association Dr Zubair Zahir told Dawn.

According to him, the appointment of administrative cadre doctors to management positions will not only improve patient care but also enable the health department to depute doctors from the clinical side to see patients in healthcare institutions.

Dr Zubair said most management cadre positions were held by doctors from the clinical cadre with no experience of administration.

Meanwhile, health officials said the administrative cadre was approved by the health department to strengthen district health system, which played a significant role in providing effective primary and secondary care to people .

They said the positions of district health officers, assistant district health officers, deputy directors and directors were required to be taken from the administrative cadre but as there was a shortage of posts, most of those positions were held by doctors from the clinical side.

The officials said the administrative cadre doctors should possess postgraduate degree in public health from recognised universities besides the MBBS degree.

They said many doctors with those qualifications were available in the job market and the government should float advertisements for their recruitment through the provincial public service commission.

The officials said the healthcare institutions required doctors from administrative cadre for both settled and merged tribal districts to ensure effective management of resources at the local level besides better patient care.

They said the general or clinical doctors weren’t trained in administration and therefore, they couldn’t perform administrative duties efficiently.

The officials at the health secretariat told Dawn that they had planned to fill those administrative positions at the earliest possible.

“It is a fact that we need right people for administrative positions as only such people know how to manage the working of health facilities. We need them for posting as the district health officers, directors, medical superintendents and deputy medical superintendents,” an official told Dawn.

He said the administrative positions were so important that many doctors from the administrative cadre had been deployed to the medical teaching institutions on high salaries and benefits to serve as hospital directors.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2021