Daily Times

LAHORE: Even as Punjab, the hub of medical education, continues to produce an impressive number of medical practitioners every year, the government hospitals were facing severe shortage of specialist doctors, as more than 50 percent of public hospitals were being run without an anaesthetist, reflecting a gloomy picture of the health system in the province, Daily Times has learnt.

Dearth of qualified officials at secondary level was making day-to-day work of the hospitals difficult, not only putting extra burden on existing doctors, but also affecting routine operations and elective surgeries being conducted in different hospitals.

Shortage of specialist doctors could be gauged by the fact that the Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department recently authorised the medical superintendents of district headquarter (DHQ) and tehsil headquarter (THQ) hospitals to engage private anaesthetists provide services to public hospitals against Rs 2,500 per case.

“Anaesthetists are very limited in number in Punjab. Untrained anaesthetists are mostly administering anaesthesia to patients in several state-run hospitals, which was virtually endangering patients’ lives,” an official told this scribe.

He said that majority of skilled anaesthetists preferred to work at private hospitals where they earn more money as compared to the state-run hospitals, thus creating a vacuum of qualified anaesthetists in public hospitals. Lengthy procedures to fill the vacant seats were also among one of the major reasons behind shortage of anaesthetists, he added.

He said a high-level meeting regarding the health reforms roadmap was held under the chairmanship of the Punjab chief minister. During the meeting, it was revealed that Punjab was facing dearth of consultant doctors at secondary healthcare level, while critical deficiency remains in availability of anaesthetists with more than 50 percent hospitals running without an anaesthetist.

The P&SHC secretary informed the meeting that the department had implanted age relaxation and pay per procedure intervention, however he admitted the failure, saying that such steps had little impact on improving the workings.

Pakistan Anaesthesia Association Lahore President Prof Dr Khalid Bhasir said that there were only 2,699 qualified registered anaesthetists across the country to handle hundreds of thousands of surgeries being done on daily basis. Out of the total qualified registered anaesthetics, 66 percent were minor diploma holders, he deplored.

He said the situation was particularly pathetic in Punjab, which has the largest network of public sector healthcare facilities that included 23 teaching hospitals, 34 DHQ and 88 THQ hospitals.

Data shows that there are 41 anaesthetists in DHQs and 24 in THQs of the province, he said, adding that the number of training slots in the specialty was far less as compared to that in surgical specialties.

Similarly, he said, a large number of the posts of assistant and associate professors were also lying vacant. “These doctors are overworked; being on call round the clock seven days a week. They needed to be competent enough to administer safe anaesthesia independently in remote areas without any supervision,”
he suggested.