RAWALPINDI, June 4: Institution-based private practice (IPP) would not be started in government hospitals by July 1 as had been announced earlier by the Punjab government.

This was said by the provincial health minister, Dr Tahir Ali Javed, while talking to this reporter.

He admitted that the government would not be able to fulfil its commitment of starting the IPP in its hospitals. The concept of institution-based private practice had been introduced as part of the health reforms introduced by President Gen Pervez Musharraf's government.

However, its implementation has been quite problematic and successive administrations have been putting it off due to one reason or the other. Many have been questioning the commitment of the administration to go ahead with the start of IPP.

The biggest hurdle in the way of launching IPP is the shortage of infrastructure. The administration had been provided a one-year period to make the necessary arrangements for infrastructure, but they had failed to do so.

The health minister said the concept of IPP was a good one, but the ground realities were against it. "We do not have necessary infrastructure to run IPPs or for that matter attract private patients, who would then be more inclined to go to better equipped private hospitals," he said.

"We cannot risk sacrificing the whole system for the sake of concept," he contended, and added that the experience of the NWFP is before everyone, where the whole system came to a halt when the government went ahead with controlling private practice.

Regarding the future of IPP, he said it was his opinion that its launching would have to be divided into phases. Asked if he is responsible for the failure to meet the deadline set by the government for launching of IPP, the minister said he had not been involved in the setting of the deadline as the decision in this regard had been taken much before he took over the control of the health department.

He further divulged that the Punjab government had on its part released the required fund, but the required infrastructure could not be put together in time to meet the deadline.

UHS: The minister, while responding to another question, admitted that the administration of University of Health Sciences (UHS) and that of Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC) were not on the best of terms and their relations were quite strained.

He said he had asked both the UHS and RMC people to end this rift. People on both sides are intellectuals and they should not squabble over such petty matters. Dr Javed regretted that this should not have happened.

Asked to explain his comments at RMC's convocation regarding improvement in examination system, the health minister said the UHS system of examination was greatly flawed. He said the UHS required mega-improvement to meet the challenges of modern-day medical education.