In a bizarre way, Punjab has transferred 210 regular nurses of the Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Kidney Transplant (RIUT) to four hospitals in the province after failing to operationalise the dedicated health facility.
The RIUT, a dedicated health facility for kidney transplantation and established by the previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government, is currently housing coronavirus patients as the current provincial government has shown least interest to make it functional.
The Punjab Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education secretary said that the transfer of 210 regular nurses of basic pay scale (BPS-16) cadre has been done on administrative grounds.
The nurses have been asked to report to their new postings stations before reporting the same to the RIUT medical superintendent to perform duty at the kidney transplant facility in Rawalpindi.
However, sources privy to the development said that the provincial health department was facing difficulty in paying salaries of the RIUT nurses, as no regular budget had been allocated.
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The sources said that the nurses, who had been hired specifically to the RIUT, had been asked to report to their new posting stations for withdrawing salary, other financial and service matters in the future.
According to the official notification, 50 nurses have been transferred to Children Hospital Lahore, 36 nurses to Services Hospital Lahore, 27 nurses to Cardiology Hospital Lahore, and 48 nurses to Mayo Hospital Lahore.
Ten nurses have been transferred to Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH), Rawalpindi, 27 to Holy Family Hospital (HFH), seven to District Headquarters Hospital Rawalpindi, and five to Samli Sanatorium Hospital Murree. All the nurses transferred to Lahore and other stations hail from the Rawalpindi district.
These nurses rendered their service at the RIUT during the four waves of coronavirus pandemic, risking their own lives. Owing to the current financial crunch, it seems that the provincial government will hardly make the RIUT functional even after the Covid-19 pandemic subsided.
A nurse at the RIUT on condition of anonymity said that the PTI provincial government has put them in trouble by transferring them to other hospitals despite the fact that they had been hired for the RIUT.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 8th, 2021.
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