Covid-19 pandemic: Lady Reading Hospital MD Dr Suleman removed for poor performance

PESHAWAR: The Board of Governors, Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), on Friday removed the hospital’s Medical Director Assistant Professor Dr Suleman Khan for his poor performance in handling the coronavirus pandemic.

“The BoG and its chairman Dr Nausherwan Burki had given Dr Suleman Khan enough time to improve patient care, but he failed to deliver,” said an official of the hospital administration. Pleading anonymity, he said the LRH faculty had criticized Dr Burki for having appointed an assistant professor as medical director. After being appointed as MD LRH, Dr Suleman, a rheumatologist by profession, was the most expensive physician as he used to charge Rs2,500 per patient in the institution-based private clinic.

He was known as the blue-eyed man of Dr Burki. It was being said a few months ago that the BoG had decided to remove Dr Suleman when patients brought with health complications were not properly taken care of at the LRH. Apart from other issues, corona patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were not properly handled for which some staff members were held responsible and removed.

It was alleged that despite having the largest super specialities, the hospital poorly handled the corona pandemic apparently due to internal differences and infighting among people in the administration. Also, the BoG members were shocked when Dr Suleman quarantined himself after entering the hospital’s ICU for a few moments. “He was supposed to be on the frontline along with the health workers, but he isolated himself by taking the plea that he had been exposed to the Covid-19 patients, though he tested negative later,” the official said.

Though it was expected to happen keeping in mind Dr Suleman’s performance and the way he managed the LRH, it seemed from his reaction he had no idea he will be removed so quickly. “I have been asked to step down as Medical Director by Dr Burki giving no good reason whatsoever. This was conveyed to me last night around 9:23pm through a WhatsApp call and now in writing this morning. I am perfectly calm and pray to Allah to guide me to the right way forward. I consider this totally an unjust and illegal action which has no base,” Dr Suleman wrote to the LRH faculty’s WhatsApp group. Almost all the faculty members celebrated his removal and no one bothered to reply to his post, in which he apparently tried to seek sympathy of the medical community.

“The reason everybody is happy at his removal is that he had zero percent respect for his colleagues, particularly the senior doctors. He used to harass faculty members by always using the words “termination”, “strict disciplinary action”. Whenever he called us to the meetings, he would torture us without any solid reason,” recalled a senior faculty member of the hospital.

Some of the doctors in LRH felt that Dr Suleman’s reaction to Dr Burki’s letter to end his contract with the hospital was harsh. They said the BoG was not happy with the hospital administration as people holding key positions had formed separate groups to blackmail each other. And the patients suffered the most. It was widely believed in the medical community that the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) was the only public sector hospital that professionally handled the Covid-19 pandemic. Even the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) was stated to be better than the LRH in terms of handling the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fellow colleagues of Dr Suleman complained that his arrogance and insulting behaviour earned him many foes in the hospital as well as in the community. Dr Zafar Mahmood, Associate Dean, chairman Medicine department, replaced Dr Suleman as the new MD LRH. He is stated to be a soft-spoken person and his faculty members and the doctors believe he knows how to deal with the Pakhtuns, particularly seniors as per their traditions. “People in LRH had served in the worst and critical conditions and handled victims of dozens of bomb explosions and suicide attacks but they were happy to work with dedication as in those days the hospital was run by respectable professors like Prof Arshad Javaid, Prof Hafizullah, Prof Muzzafaruddin Sadiq,” recalled one female faculty member of the hospital.