Chairmen of BoGs in 8 KP hospitals appointed despite contempt notices

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has appointed chairpersons of the Board of Governors (BoGs) of the eight medical teaching institutions (MTIs) despite the issuance of contempt notices to the government.

The Peshawar High Court issued contempt notices to the government for appointing chairpersons of the BoGs, particularly the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), where former the chairman, Dr Umar Ayub had challenged his removal and got a stay order from the court.

Despite the stay order, the government nominated members of the BoGs in backdates.Besides Dr Umar Ayub, other members of the boards, had challenged their replacement in court.The medical community believes that the public sector hospitals particularly the MTIs suffered a lot during the caretaker government as the majority members of the BoGs were selected allegedly based on their links with political parties.

Those appointed by the incumbent government are mostly health professionals and have contributed to the health sector.Meanwhile, the chief minister appointed chairpersons for the BoGs of eight MTIs.

Dr Nausherwan Burki was appointed as chairperson of the Board of Governors for Medical Teaching Institution, Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar. He has already started activities as BoG chairman.

Maj-Gen (retd) Dr Amjad Fahim was appointed as chairman of the Board of Governors for Medical Teaching Institution, Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), Peshawar.Before him, a retired bureaucrat, Sahibzada Mohammad Saeed led the HMC board and initiated a number of reforms and projects that got the HMC the status of ‘role model’ for other MTIs.

Sahibzada Saeed had selected a team of professional people who utilised their skills to improve services and set up new facilities and sub-specialties. The search and nomination council had nominated him as a member of Board of Governors but nobody knows how his name was dropped from the list.

Taimoor Shah was appointed as chairman of BoG for Medical Teaching Institution, KTH, Peshawar.The KTH was stated to be the best health facility in Peshawar but its services deteriorated after it was declared as an MTI.

Prof Dr Noorul Iman, former Dean of Khyber Medical College (KMC) was given the charge of Qazi Hussain Ahmad Medical Complex (QHAMC) in Nowshera as its chairman.

He was appointed as chairman of the same hospital during the previous PTI government but the government succumbed to the pressure of a local politician and former PTI leader in Nowshera when Prof Nurul Iman initiated reforms and made selections of technical staff on merit.

He was forced to resign so that the then PTI leader could serve his interests in the public sector hospital.Maj-Gen (retired) Dr Salahuddin Qasim was again made chairman of BoG for Medical Teaching Institution, Bacha Khan Medical Complex, Swabi.

Former vice-chancellor of Khyber Medical University (KMU) Peshawar Prof Dr Arshad Javaid was authorised to lead the BoG for Medical Teaching Institution, Mardan Medical Complex (MMC).Prof Dr Abid Jameel, an oncologist and pioneer of the free blood cancer treatment in KP, was directed to chair the BoG for Medical Teaching Institution, Ayub Medical Complex or Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad.

Dr Saeedullah Shah will serve as chairman of BoG for Medical Teaching Institution, Khalifa Gul Nawaz, Bannu.The young doctors (assistant professors) whom Dr Burki had made heads of their respective departments and given them extra perks and privileges after they agreed to shift their evening time private clinics to the hospital promises, were no longer following their commitment.

The majority of them had started running two clinics, one in the hospital that is called IBPP (institution-based private practice) and private clinics outside the hospital. This is not the only issue of LRH. All the doctors recruited under the MTI Act, who had opted for IBPP, are bound under the law to avoid doing private practice.

This practice began in the caretaker setup when their respective BoGs were least bothered to look into these issues. Another major issue is the long-delayed promotions of the doctors in the MTIs and particularly in the LRH.

Other MTIs had promoted their faculty members without any prior conditions for the institutional employees to link their promotions with IBPP. Most of the doctors don’t follow their duty hours, apparently due to lack of checks on them.

The biggest challenge for Dr Burki is to restore trust of doctors and take steps to encourage the new doctors to join LRH and contribute to some important sections such as intensive care, paediatric cardiology, paediatric cardiac surgery and adult cardiology and adult cardiac surgery.

The entire intensive care team has resigned one by one, all consultants hired in the past five years have left LRHSimilar is the case of nursing staff as hundreds of nurses quit their jobs in LRH due to the uncertain environment.

Clinical care in different units has been compromised due to a host of reasons while low quality medicines have been found under Sehat Card Plus programme.All the intensive care consultants, who had come from abroad, resigned and went back.

Also, a number of equipment are out of order including CT scan machine and other important equipment in different units and the administration of the hospital has not been able to repair them.