Govt hospitals under scrutiny

The Punjab health department has launched a crackdown against mismanagement and negligence by the administrators of the province's government hospitals in a bid to improve the health facilities for the people.

The provincial health ministry has announced a zero-tolerance policy against negligence by hospital administrations and planned surprise visits by senior officers to monitor the conditions in them.

The ministry has formed teams of officials of the Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department to start monitoring the hospitals and take immediate action against corruption and mismanagement.

A couple of days ago, the department suspended the medical superintendent of the Government Hospital Shahdara and instructed the administrations of all hospitals to improve the conditions.

However, hospital officials criticised the policy of surprise visits and suspension of officers. They said such measures had not proved fruitful in the past as all suspended heads of hospitals had later returned to the same posts.

Following the instructions of Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid to launch action to streamline the affairs in the public sector hospitals, the department has formed teams that will visit the facilities without informing their administrators.

“Punjab health department was receiving complaints of corruption, mismanagement and appointment of staff in violation of merit in the hospitals. Besides this, patients’ complaints of lack of health facilities were also received and especially the situation in the big hospitals of the province was becoming worse,” said a senior officer.

The officer added that the complaints indicated that the authorities of the provincial capital’s major health facilities, including Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Jinnah Hospital, Lahore General Hospital, Kot Khawaja Saeed Hospital and Shahdara Hospital, were continuously showing poor performance.

“So the teams of Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department will check the situation of the hospitals on a daily basis. The department has prepared a schedule for the purpose and in case of negligence orders of suspension of the MS and other senior officers will be issued on the spot. Our monitoring teams will especially check the availability of medicines free of charge, emergency treatment, operation theatres and other departments. The medical superintendents of hospitals have been advised to improve the departments,” the health department officer said

A team paid surprise visit to the Government Teaching Hospital Shahdara, where MS Dr Shahid iqbal was not present on duty, while patients complained about lack of facilities.

When contacted, Dr Iqbal said, “I was in an official meeting at Civil Secretariat when the team visited the hospital in my absence and suspended me, which is not fair. My hospital is one of the best hospitals and I don’t know why this happened,” he added.

Even before launching the campaign, a number of hospitals’ MS were suspended on charges of mismanagement and corruption during the current government.

An official said all the suspended MS were later reinstated and no benefit to the people of the province as a result of the actions was noticed. “Dr Tahir Khalil, former MS of Mayo Hospital, was suspended on charges of mismanagement and corruption but later reinstated on the same post. Former medical superintendents of the Jinnah, Kot Khawaja Saeed and Shahdara hospitals were also suspended by the current government but reinstated later and it appears to have become a joke. All these officers faced charges of mismanagement and corruption but nothing was proved against them, while the conditions in the hospitals worsened.”

Talking to The Express Tribune, Punjab health ministry spokesman Sayed Hamad Raza said, "Providing the best treatment facilities at hospitals is the aim of the government and the health minister is making efforts in this regard. No negligence and excuse will be accepted from the administrations and public hospitals should try to provide the best health facilities to the people.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2021.