Healthcare: Punjab to lose pioneering doctor to Islamabad
Prof Warraich leaving KEMU to join PIMS because of ‘mistreatment’.
LAHORE:
A pioneering doctor involved with two major projects at the King Edwards Medical University and Mayo Hospital is transferring from the Punjab government to the federal government because of alleged mistreatment, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Prof Riaz Ahmad Warraich, professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery at KEMU, has written to the health secretary asking to be relieved. He is soon to take over as executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad. Health Department officials said he had not been relieved yet but the process was underway and would be completed soon.
Prof Warraich told The Express Tribune that he was joining PIMS because he felt he had been mistreated and he had not been treated with respect by administrative officials.
A KEMU professor earlier recounted a story about a meeting at Mayo Hospital. “A Senior Medical Officer (SMO) at Mayo Hospital, Dr Tariq Ijaz, abused him before some other doctors, because he had supported some doctors of the Young Doctors Association. Later a junior deputy medical superintendent at Mayo Hospital also abused him,” he said.
Prof Warraich confirmed that this was the reason he was leaving. “Respect is the most important thing. If I don’t get respect here, at a department that I built from scratch with my own hands, then there is no use staying,” he added.
Assistant MS Tariq Ijaz denied misbehaving with the senior professor. “I didn’t abuse him. It’s just an excuse for his departure. He is not leaving because of me,” he said.
Prof Warraich said that his department at KEMU trained doctors from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other countries and had signed MoUs with European and American universities.
Colleagues said Prof Warraich’s departure would be a major loss to healthcare and medical education in the Punjab. “He is the most senior maxillofacial surgeon in the country,” said a KEMU professor.
“Of the total 95 qualified maxillofacial surgeons in Pakistan, he trained 71, including the chief maxillofacial surgeon in Quetta and most senior maxillofacial surgeon in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He went to India a few years ago to operate on a close relative of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.”
Maxillofacial surgery is to treat injuries and defects to the head, neck, face, jaws and the hard and soft tissues of the oral (mouth) and maxillofacial (jaws and face) regions. It requires both medical and dental expertise.
Another professor said that Dr Warraich had been involved in two huge projects at KEMU and Mayo Hospital. “He was the man behind setting up an independent dental college of 60 local and 10 foreign seats at KEMU. He had the vision to open a college and pursued it. Without him, I don’t think there could be a college,” he said.
The professor said that Dr Warraich was also project director for the Mayo Hospital Surgical Tower, the hospital’s longest and most expensive project ever. The Surgical Tower is due to be completed on December 31, “but that is highly unlikely now,” he said.
A senior professor said that Dr Warraich was currently supervising 20 post-graduate trainees for Fellowship of the College of Physicians and Surgeons and MS. There is no place in the Punjab where these trainees can easily be transferred. Their training will be affected,” he said.
He said that Prof Warraich was just the latest senior professor to depart the KEMU, which had deteriorated greatly in recent years. He said this was because of the government’s failure to appoint a permanent vice chancellor at the university.
The acting vice chancellor could not be reached for comment.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2012.
A pioneering doctor involved with two major projects at the King Edwards Medical University and Mayo Hospital is transferring from the Punjab government to the federal government because of alleged mistreatment, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Prof Riaz Ahmad Warraich, professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery at KEMU, has written to the health secretary asking to be relieved. He is soon to take over as executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad. Health Department officials said he had not been relieved yet but the process was underway and would be completed soon.
Prof Warraich told The Express Tribune that he was joining PIMS because he felt he had been mistreated and he had not been treated with respect by administrative officials.
A KEMU professor earlier recounted a story about a meeting at Mayo Hospital. “A Senior Medical Officer (SMO) at Mayo Hospital, Dr Tariq Ijaz, abused him before some other doctors, because he had supported some doctors of the Young Doctors Association. Later a junior deputy medical superintendent at Mayo Hospital also abused him,” he said.
Prof Warraich confirmed that this was the reason he was leaving. “Respect is the most important thing. If I don’t get respect here, at a department that I built from scratch with my own hands, then there is no use staying,” he added.
Assistant MS Tariq Ijaz denied misbehaving with the senior professor. “I didn’t abuse him. It’s just an excuse for his departure. He is not leaving because of me,” he said.
Prof Warraich said that his department at KEMU trained doctors from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other countries and had signed MoUs with European and American universities.
Colleagues said Prof Warraich’s departure would be a major loss to healthcare and medical education in the Punjab. “He is the most senior maxillofacial surgeon in the country,” said a KEMU professor.
“Of the total 95 qualified maxillofacial surgeons in Pakistan, he trained 71, including the chief maxillofacial surgeon in Quetta and most senior maxillofacial surgeon in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He went to India a few years ago to operate on a close relative of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.”
Maxillofacial surgery is to treat injuries and defects to the head, neck, face, jaws and the hard and soft tissues of the oral (mouth) and maxillofacial (jaws and face) regions. It requires both medical and dental expertise.
Another professor said that Dr Warraich had been involved in two huge projects at KEMU and Mayo Hospital. “He was the man behind setting up an independent dental college of 60 local and 10 foreign seats at KEMU. He had the vision to open a college and pursued it. Without him, I don’t think there could be a college,” he said.
The professor said that Dr Warraich was also project director for the Mayo Hospital Surgical Tower, the hospital’s longest and most expensive project ever. The Surgical Tower is due to be completed on December 31, “but that is highly unlikely now,” he said.
A senior professor said that Dr Warraich was currently supervising 20 post-graduate trainees for Fellowship of the College of Physicians and Surgeons and MS. There is no place in the Punjab where these trainees can easily be transferred. Their training will be affected,” he said.
He said that Prof Warraich was just the latest senior professor to depart the KEMU, which had deteriorated greatly in recent years. He said this was because of the government’s failure to appoint a permanent vice chancellor at the university.
The acting vice chancellor could not be reached for comment.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2012.