Dr Arshad Javaid appointed LRH dean

PESHAWAR: The Board of Governors (BoG) of Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) appointed Dr Arshad Javaid as dean ?Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI) on Monday.

The BoG approved the recommendations of the selection committee and appointed Dr Arshad Javaid as dean for three years, said a press release. Dr Arshad Javaid is the head of the Department of Pulmonology at LRH. He has served as Dean PGMI, Chief Executive of Hayatabad Medical Complex and Chief Executive LRH.  

He is an accomplished academician and an authority on pulmonology in the country. He is also a prolific researcher with more than 130 publications.It is believed that if Dr Arshad Javaid had been brought in as acting charge on any position when the MTI Act was first introduced, he would have bridged the gap that was created between the stakeholders, especially the faculty and the BoG. He would have supported Prof Nausherwan Burki who ran the institution almost on his own.

The interim setup has been a big failure in LRH. Prof Amir Ghafoor’s incompetence and lack of commitment forced the BoG to sack him and replace him a week ago with another interim MD Prof Khalid Mehmud.

Unofficially it is known that Dr Mukhtiar Zaman Afridi, a pulmonology professor from KTH has also been approved as MD LRH but is waiting to complete the formalities. Dr Arshad Javaid and Dr Mukhtiar Zaman Afridi are expected to make a good team as being pulmonologists they have worked together closely as faculty members, examiners for CPSP and as president and general secretary of Pakistan Chest Society, respectively. They have also organised international chest conferences together.

LRH is the only hospital that selected an officer from a different hospital than its own and proved the transparency of the process. All other hospitals such as the HMC selected Dean and MD from their own hospitals ignoring credible candidates from other hospitals.

LRH is considered the flag bearer for bringing reforms under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa MTI Reform Act 2015 under the leadership of Prof  Nausherwan Burki, who has been mandated to reform the healthcare delivery at the tertiary care hospitals in the province.

The appointment of new dean and medical director through a transparent process is seen as an opportunity to expedite the reform agenda and achieve the targets in the next two years of the incumbent government.

The challenges Prof Nausherwan Burki is facing include the frequent litigation and stay orders which hinder his reform agenda, the non-cooperation from the health department, defiance and agitation by some of the staff associations, vested interest pro-status quo elements in the profession, and lack of experienced people around him to pave way for smooth implementation of reforms.

It is pertinent to mention that a positive step to improve Maulvi Jee Hospital by merging it with LRH was frustrated by a court stay order and now the health department is moving a summary to revert it to the control of director general health services.

Similarly, court stay orders in health department’s notification about devolution of PGMI and bringing Peshawar Institute of Cardiology (PIC) under BoG LRH are causing concern to the policy makers and the government.

All these writ petitions have been submitted by the duo of Dr Hussain Ahmad Haroon, the self-acclaimed life-long president of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), and lawyer Mohibullah Kakakhel.  The status quo suits some influential anti-reform elements of the doctors’ community opposed to the reform act.

LRH is the first of the MTI institutions to have started Institutional Based Practice (IBP), developed an efficient human resource department, streamlined the OPD services, succeeded in bringing control over ever increasing trend of agitation and industrial action and improved the security and cleanliness of the hospital.