Seven KTH employees charge-sheeted

The seven officials, held responsible by an initial inquiry for the sequence of events which led to the death of six novel coronavirus patients at the Khyber Teaching Hospital earlier in the week, have been charge-sheeted.

The hospital has subsequently started initiating formal disciplinary actions against them and gave them mere hours to prepare and submit responses.

Reliable sources at the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) have told The Express Tribune that as a second inquiry, launched by the medical teaching institute’s Board of Governors (BoG), neared its conclusion, the seven nominated employees were charged under the PND rules.

They were subsequently directed to submit their written explanations. However, in a surprising move, the inquiry body gave these officials, including the director of the medical teaching institute (MTI) just nine hours to submit their responses. They were further told that they can send their responses via the online messaging application, WhatsApp.

All the employees, however, had submitted their written replies till the filing of this report. Sources said that the replies will now be submitted to the committee set up by the BoGs and a final decision on the reports is expected to be taken on Monday.

To further investigate the issue, a three-member independent committee has been formed which started its investigations by recording statements of the hospital staff.

On the other hand, sources said that the committee had sought an additional three days to file its final report on the incident.

Earlier, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had directed the inquiry committee to submit a report within six days. The committee, however, sought seven days to compile a detailed report.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2020.