Insaf Doctors Forum accuses KTH administration of irregularities

PESHAWAR: The Insaf Doctors Forum (IDF), which is affiliated with the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), has asked the board of governors of the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) to take note of the irregularities and violation of merit committed by the hospital administration.
Dr Noor Habib and Dr Mudir Khan, IDF president and vice-president, respectively, held the administration responsible for the poor healthcare services being provided at the hospital.
According to the IDF representatives, they held meetings with medical director and hospital director of KTH a number of times and brought these issues into their knowledge, but to no avail. They said the KTH administration without the consent of the hospital’s board of governors created a new post of Deputy Manager Quality Assurance and appointed their blue-eyed candidate on the position without advertising the post.
Dr Mudir said the hospital director withdrew the notification of her appointment when they pointed out that it was in violation of merit, but the medical director was adamant and directed her to continue with the job.
He said the medical director argued that they would not be able to find a qualified person for the job if they advertised the post.
“Since it was a violation of MTI Act, the medical director claimed that board of governors Chairman Dr Faisal Sultan had consented to create the new post and appoint the said candidate. However, when we approached Dr Faisal Sultan, he told us he was unaware of any such development,” Dr Mudir said in his statement.
The PTI-affiliated doctors said the board of governors in its meeting held on Saturday decided to advertise the post and select a suitable person.
However, Dr Mudir claimed the medical director instead of terminating the services of the present deputy manager started efforts to alter the advertisement to help her qualify for the job. “This job needs competent, experienced and qualified person, which is not possible without advertising it,” he said.
The doctors said the KTH administration had advertised two positions (regular and leave reserve) of assistant professors in the Gynaecology Department.
?They said Dr Farzana and Dr Naila Bukhari serving as senior registrars in the same department had applied for the positions.
The IDF office-bearers said Dr Farzana had applied for both the positions while Dr Naila Bukhari was candidate for leave reserve post.
They claimed Dr Naila Bukhari was on top of merit list of reserve leave post and was selected for the post.
“Dr Naila had served for three months as assistant professor (on contract basis) but ?Dr Farzana used her influence and conducted an inquiry about the selection process. Dr Naila was demoted and Dr Farzana was appointed in her place. Dr Naila went to the court and got a stay order but the KTH administration is yet to take its notice,” the IDF president said.
He said the issue should have been referred to the board of governors.
The IDF representatives said that after the MTI Act, the position of medical superintendent had been abolished but a former occupant of this office Dr Mohammad Ali Chohan was still getting Rs176, 000 salary per month from KTH.
“He has not come to the hospital to work even for a day but is still paid by the KTH administration. This has put extra financial burden on meagre resources of the KTH due to incompetence of hospital administration to tackle the issue with Health Department,” Dr Mudir said.
He said the KTH administration wasted time and resources on unnecessary things that directly affected patient care as greater concentration should have been given to improvement of laboratory, radiology, operation theatres, pharmacy and emergency services. A spokesman for the KTH, when approached for his comments, said the board of governors in its meeting principally decided to advertise the post of Deputy Manager Quality Assurance.