KARACHI, May 26: Terming the steps taken so far by the present government in the health sector insufficient, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has stressed the need for immediately taking reformative measures without which it fears the health issues facing the common man will remain unresolved.

The central council of the doctors’ association in the country, PMA, met with its honorary president Dr Mohammad Sarwar Choudhry in the chair here on Sunday.

The meeting deplored that the government had so far been unable to appoint a permanent or exclusive minister for health at the federal level. “The meeting expressed its dismay over the government’s reluctance to appoint a permanent federal health minister, and condemned this show of disinterest of the government towards the health of nation”, says a PMA communication released by its secretary-general Dr Habibur Rehman Soomro.

Expressing its reservations over the formation of a health task force by the federal government, the PMA said that the previous governments had also established many health reforms commissions, task forces and health care reforms in a similar fashion but almost all of them failed to yield the desired results mainly due to a lack of implementation.

The meeting also called for the inclusion of government and local bodies’ representatives, PMA representatives and other stakeholders both from the public and the private sectors in the task force. It said that the task force should be given a strict timeframe to chalk out well-integrated and coordinated strategies by taking into consideration factors like the available manpower, services, facilities, technology, equipment and budgetary allocation.Besides, issues like a respectable salary structure for doctors, the alleged mismanagement in the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and the menace of quackery also came under discussion during the PMA meeting.

The meeting urged the government to ensure that vested interests did not interfere in the overall working of the PMDC. The prime minister should take cognizance of the situation to ensure that the PMDC worked as an independent body.

The PMA demanded that the PMDC should provide legal assistance to get stay orders against an elected member from Sindh, Dr Shershah Syed, vacated.

It was further stated that the service structure of doctors of other provinces should be made in accordance with that of Punjab, where salaries of doctors had been raised about a year back.

The central council also urged the government to immediately fill all the vacant posts of doctors across the country on merit through the public service commission. It demanded that the government should regularise all the appointments made on a contract basis, and these should be done on the basis of seniority and experience.

The PMA also called for a ban on all types of quackery in the country through the promulgation of an ordinance.

The meeting, however, welcomed the policy guidelines given by the government as the PMA had already been proposing these for the past 50 years, added the PMA communication.