High Covid-19 fatalities: LRH chief of medicine & allied specialities removed

PESHAWAR: Taking exception to the high number of deaths from coronavirus, the Board of Governors (BoG) of Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) headed by Dr Nausherwan Burki removed chairman of medicine and allied specialities of the hospital Dr Jabbar Ali from his position.

The LRH has been in headlines for some time, particularly since the outbreak of coronavirus when it was declared as main health facility to handle Covid-19 patients.

However, most of the patients shifted to this hospital lost their lives allegedly due to poor services.

According to officials, Dr Nausherwan Burki monitored the situation in LRH when emergency was declared after outbreak of Covid-19. He monitored the ICU and non-ICU patients and pointed out a lot of deficiencies.

After thorough discussions Dr Burki reached to the conclusion that it was failure of the leadership.

“He was not satisfied with the duty rota. He planned duty rota for ICU staff and organised other matters,” said the official.

Now associate Dean, Dr Zafar, has been appointed as chairman medicine and allied specialities.

“Dr Zafar is consultant rehabilitation and stroke. It was decided that he should take over as chairman medicine and allied specialities. He had delivered far better than Medical Director Dr Suleman Khan when he isolated himself for a week and Dr Zafar was given the charge,” said the official.

He said all issues were settled except the ICU. “When Dr Burki made duty rota for ICU staff, Dr Ayesha and Dr Mazhar didn’t agree with him as they wanted to do it themselves. And that was the reason Dr Ayesha and Dr Mazhar resigned,” he said.

According to sources, Dr Jabbar Ali has refused to step down.

Dr Jabbar Ali is assistant professor in LRH cardiology department. He was junior to many other doctors in his department but was made its head. It is not clear whether he will be allowed to continue as head of cardiology department.

The faculty members in LRH alleged that most of the doctors included in the panel to treat Covid-19 patients were neither trained for the job nor properly protected to treat patients suffering from coronavirus.

According to the faculty members, one major reason of high mortality in LRH was the induction of doctors of irrelevant specialities in the panel to treat COVID-19 patients. It was alleged that COVID-19 patients were neglected and left at the mercy of Allah Almighty apparently due to fear associated with this disease and lack of personal protective equipment.

According to officials of the LRH administration, senior doctors avoided treating coronavirus patients and this was the main reason patients died of complications.

“How will the patients recover when they are treated by inexperienced junior doctors?” an official asked.

However, the doctors have a different story to tell about the high mortality rate. They said that things went wrong when seniors were ignored while making a plan for COVID-19 pandemic. They pointed out that inducting doctors of irrelevant specialities was a blunder.

Prof Dr Amjad Taqweem, a noted physician, suggested that since LRH had some of the best qualified people, including Prof Yaseen Khan, infectious disease specialist dealing with HIV, and medical specialists Prof Khalid Mahmood and Dr Salma Zeb, they should have been given the task to cope with the pandemic.

“They are the only capable people in the present lot but I don’t think they will accept responsibility without authority. At least Prof Yaseen Khan won’t. He has worked for more than a decade. He won’t tolerate some people present in LRH to create issues for Dr Nausherwan Burki,” Prof Amjad Taqweem explained.

He predicted that coronavirus would stay for at least 1-2 years.

LRH spokesman Muhammad Asim said the previous rota of five consecutive days and then two weeks off has been replaced. He said now 12 hour shift duty will be followed by 36 hours off which will improve the performance and ease the stress on doctors.

Asim said that management committee designed the rota recommended by Dr Ahsun from SKMH who visited LRH recently to evaluate the services provided in ICU.

He added that assistant professor from anesthesia department of LRH MTI did not resign from her post officially.

"No official resignation has been received from Dr Ayesha Mufti or any other consultant so far," claimed Asim.

He added that it was not a normal situation for LRH administration and its doctors.

He said that facilities in corona complex of LRH MTI were exemplary where oxygen supply including ventilators and other facilities were available round the clock.