HMC Medical Director Dr Mazhar Khan resigns

PESHAWAR: A tussle between the medical director and hospital director of the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) over use of powers finally led to the resignation of Medical Director Prof Dr Mazhar Khan.
Chairman Board of Governors (BoG) of the HMC Sahibzada Mohammad Saeed accepted resignation and appointed a senior most faculty member, Prof Dr Noor Wazir as acting medical director on Monday.
Prof Dr Mazhar Khan is a surgeon while Prof Dr Noor Wazir is a physician and head of Medicine Department of the hospital.Dr Mazhar Khan was recently appointed as medical director of the hospital when the government had appointed medical directors and hospital directors of the four medical teaching institutions in the province.
When reached by telephone, Sahibzada Mohammad Saeed told The News that Dr Mazhar Khan in his resignation mentioned that he was planning to go to Canada and see his family and therefore it would not be possible for him to continue his additional responsibility of the medical director.
“We accepted his resignation and appointed a senior most faculty member Prof Dr Noor Wazir as acting medical director,” said Sahibzada Saeed, a former secretary finance and chairman of the BoG of the HMC.
There were reports that serious differences had emerged between Medical Director Dr Mazhar Khan and Hospital Director Dr Khalid Latif Bangash over use of official powers.Sources in the HMC said that both of them had developed differences over chairmanship of purchase and procurement committees.
They said that being medical director, Dr Khalid Latif Bangash wanted to exercise the powers of principal accounts officer.There were also reports that before Dr Mazhar, Dr Khalid Latif had tendered resignation but Secretary Health Mushtaq Jadoon had not accepted it.
Sahibzada Saeed said they had decided to seek assistance of top four private firms in advertising and selection of positions of the medical director, hospital director and principal of Khyber Girls Medical College (KGMC).
“To ensure transparency in selection of these positions, we decided to involve these four top firms in the selection process. They have technical experts and would select five or seven people for one post. Then our selection team would select one person among these five or seven people and recommend the name to Board of Governors for final approval,” Sahibzada Saeed explained.
He said the process might take two or less than two months and very soon the hospital would have permanent administrative staff.Sources in the medical fraternity told The News that some of the doctors having strong political roots had decided to oppose the newly introduced reforms in the health sector and if the process of selecting permanent medical and hospital directors was delayed, they would succeed in their designs and might create serious hurdles for the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The most problematic is the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), where a group of senior and influential doctors had launched am organized campaign to unite all the doctors’ associations and unions of workers and launch a united drive against the new reforms.
Interestingly, some of the doctors who are playing pivotal role in this campaign against the health reforms are working against important positions. They accelerated their efforts after Prof Dr Nausherawan Burki, chairman BoG LRH after completion of paper works left for United States, where he is permanently based, and is expected to return in June.