The hospital’s board of directors forms two investigative committees, which are tasked with submitting reports in three days
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Muhammad Sohail Afridi. Photo: File
Orders issued by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi regarding disciplinary action against senior officials of Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar have reportedly not been implemented. Instead, the hospital’s board of directors has set up two separate investigative committees to investigate the matter.
According to official sources, the Board of Governors (BoG) formed the committees to investigate allegations against the hospital director and the head of the pediatric emergency department. Both committees have been tasked to submit their reports within three days, after which a decision will be taken on further action against the officials.
This development follows a late-night visit by the Chief Minister to LRH’s pediatric emergency ward on the night of December 15-16, prompted by a video circulating on social media showing a complaint of denial of medical treatment to a newborn. During the visit, patients and their companions reportedly lodged numerous complaints about poor facilities, poor management and staff behaviour.
The Chief Minister also inspected other departments of the hospital and interacted with patients and their families. He expressed serious displeasure with poor cleanliness, disorder, substandard patient care, staff attitude and violations of standard operating procedures (SOPs), and ordered the removal of the hospital director and suspension of the head of Pediatric Emergency.
Subsequently, a formal letter with these orders was sent to the BoG. The letter expressed serious concern over the situation at LRH, which is the province’s largest tertiary care hospital and receives an annual government subsidy of around Rs 8 billion. It emphasized that the hospital has a critical responsibility to provide quality health services, especially for emergency cases and newborns.
The letter also described the poor health standards and weak administrative performance as a serious embarrassment not only to the institution but also to the provincial government and it sought a compliance report on the implementation of the chief minister’s orders.
However, instead of immediately enforcing the directives, the BoG decided to initiate investigations. Sources said that a two-member committee has been set up to investigate the matter regarding the hospital director, consisting of the director of finance as chairman and the director of personnel as a member.
A separate three-member committee has been formed to investigate the pediatric emergency department with the head of the department of medicine, Dr. Atta, as chairman, together with the chairman of gynecology and obstetrics, dr. Shahzadi Salma, and assistant professor of radiology, dr. Imran Khan, as members. The committee investigating the pediatric emergency has been tasked with identifying gaps in patient admissions, procedures, patient load management and treatment provision and making recommendations in its report.
Insiders claim that the removal of the hospital director has been stopped by the chairman of the BoG, and there are reportedly efforts to exonerate the director by arguing that he was not directly involved in the situation at the pediatric emergency department. Sources warn that the divergence between the chief minister’s orders and the BoG’s decision could spark a fresh controversy.
