Working in hospitals compromised due to local leaders’ interference

Rawalpindi
The administrations of the three teaching hospitals in town have to compromise on quality of working due to interference from local politicians though the administrative staff remains tight-lipped and rarely admits the phenomenon due to political pressure on them.
A similar example was witnessed at District Headquarters Hospital within last two weeks or so when the DHQ Hospital administration ordered its sanitation staff to do the jobs for which they were inducted.
‘The News’ learnt that as many as 38 workers from sanitation department of the hospital were working jobs for which they were not inducted actually, as they got themselves placed either at various counters or as ward boys or doing jobs of peons on the basis of back-up from local leaders.
It is important that the DHQ Hospital has a total of 78 workers at its sanitation department who are responsible for cleanliness. The cleanliness situation of the DHQ Hospital got bad to worse within past few months due to unavailability of 50 per cent of its staff at the sanitation department.
The hospital administration had to face pressure from local politicians when it directed the sanitation staff to do their relevant jobs.
Medical Superintendent at DHQ Hospital Dr. Khalid Randhawa, when contacted by ‘The News’ admitted that nearly 50 per cent of the available staff members at the sanitation department were doing jobs in other departments for years thinking cleanliness as an odd job. However, the hospital administration has directed all the staff to perform cleanliness job for which they were inducted, he added.
To a query, he said he did not face ‘significant’ pressure from local politicians, however, he admitted that the local leaders have inquired him of the working of sanitation staff at the hospital. “Now all 78 workers inducted in the sanitation department of the hospital are doing jobs for sanitation on the premises of the hospital,” said Dr. Randhawa.