Staff hiring for Peshawar Institute of Cardiology & Burn and Trauma Centre

PESHAWAR: Taking note of unceasing sufferings of the heart patients, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has approached the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to exempt two highly important health projects from ban on recruitment so that staff can be hired for the much-delayed Peshawar Institute of Cardiology (PIC) and Burn and Trauma Centre.

The ban came at a time when an independent Board of Governors (BoG) for these autonomous institutes had advertised positions of faculty members and called for interviews the shortlisted candidates.

Some shortlisted candidates had arrived in Peshawar for the interview and others were lined up in the US, Canada, UK, etc. The shortlisted candidates were informed a day before about the cancellation of the interviews.

They were told that the cancellation was necessitated because of the recent notification by the ECP, which had banned all new recruitment in the government departments due to upcoming general election.

The cancellation of interviews was a big shock for the applicants who had come from overseas only for the PIC interviews, though they were not given travelling allowance.

Interestingly, the doctors in Peshawar celebrated this ban on interviews as none of them were shortlisted for the interviews.

Up to 25 cardiologists and cardiac surgeons were shortlisted. According to sources, the most of them had worked in the best cardiac hospitals abroad.

Meanwhile, government officials told The News that the provincial government was concerned about plight of patients suffering from cardiac diseases as well as of burn injuries, and decided to approach the ECP with a humble request to exempt the two singular institutes, the 300 bedded Peshawar Institute of Cardiology and the 120 bedded Burns & Trauma Centre Peshawar, which are about to be completed by or before June 30 this year.

Much of the civil works had already been completed and procurement orders for medical equipment already placed, with delivery expected by June 15.

According to sources, KP Chief Secretary Mohammad Azam Khan has written to ECP on behalf of the provincial government and to bring sufferings of the patients in their knowledge and the need for timely completion of the two long-delayed projects.

“Both the institutions are first of their kind in the province. The Peshawar Institute of Cardiology has specialized cover for both cardiac and cardio-vascular super specialties, and is to serve not only as a service provider but also as a hub for training and research. The Burns & Trauma Centre has 60 beds for burns patients and 60 for reconstructive surgery and is unique this side of Attock. Both are managed by the autonomous boards of governors under the Medical Teaching Institutions law,” the government has explained in its letter to the ECP. After releasing funds and completion of civil works, procurement orders for equipment actualised the government this year sanctioned 297 and 347 posts, respectively for the operationalization of these institutes inclusive of specialized human resource and advertised the positions.

The government has informed the ECP that the recruitment process was stalled due to the ban imposed by the ECP on fresh recruitments, more so peculiarly as these are autonomous institutions and their employees are not considered civil servants.

“The timely operationalization of these hospitals is in extreme public interest and cannot be let to a later date in time as such patients now are being taken to down country, adding to out of pocket expenditure,” the letter can be read as.

It also informed the ECP authorities that economic cost and sheer physical distress of patients and attendants, accentuating risk of death of most patients suffering such critical conditions.

“It is requested that an exemption in ban on recruitment may kindly be granted in appointments to posts in Peshawar Institute of Cardiology and Burns and Trauma Centre in public interest,” the KP government requested in the letter.