Management issues: Doctors at AMC protest manhandling of colleague

Claim engineering dept head roughed up a doctor requesting equipment repair.

ABBOTABAD: The doctors of Ayub Medical Complex Abbottabad (AMC) protested on Thursday, in effect closing down the hospital’s outpatient department (OPD). The outcry followed the alleged abusive behaviour of AMC’s engineering department head with a doctor.

Nine months of delay

The protesting doctors said machines used for diagnosing and treating patients in the hospital have been out of order for several months, forcing patients to get tested at private clinics and laboratories. Machines used for gastroscopy and angiography, ventilators and equipment used in the intensive care unit (ICU), coronary care unit (CCU) and radiology department have been out of order for over nine months, added the doctors. According to the protesters, the respective department heads wrote to the medical superintendent, chief executive and the head of medical engineering department but received no positive response.



They added on Wednesday, the head of the gastro department, Dr Adil Naseer, went to Sajjad Alam who heads the engineering department to request repairs for the gastroscopy machine. But Alam, according to Naseer, ended up trying to physically assault him.

Naseer informed his colleagues who decided to take to the streets starting Thursday. Both senior and junior doctors refused to work, suspending activities in the OPD which receives nearly 3,000 patients from across Hazara division, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir every day. The hospital administration has been warned the protest will last until the doctors’ demand of repairing the machines is met.

Patient care

Patients across the board at AMC suffered delays because of the protest on Thursday.

However, Dr Sher Ayub said all inpatients and those visiting for emergency services were treated properly. Nonetheless, Ayub added out-dated machines hinder doctors’ routine work and they often have to face the impoliteness of patients and their attendants.

The hospital’s superintendent, Dr Iftikhar Ahmed, told The Express Tribune in order to buffer the protest’s impact, junior doctors were placed on duty. “Our work continues and we have provided health care to patients in the ICU and CCU; even surgeries are taking place,” said Ahmed.

Not a simple dispute

Ahmed said the real fuss is due to the absence of “a proper authority”.  The provincial government had announced a board of governors a few days ago to run the affairs of the hospital, abolishing the existing management council. However, a proper notification is yet to be issued while the hospital’s chief executive, Dr Rehman Ghani, has not been working since almost a month, said the superintendent.

Ahmed said there is no one to disburse finances for the repair and maintenance of the machines, but he has “somehow managed the finances to help doctors and patients”.

According to Ahmed, he has talked to the doctors who agreed to call off their strike and resume their duty as per schedule. Ayub Medical Complex also known as Ayub Teaching Hospital is a 1,000-bed tertiary health care institution. The hospital has 26 medical departments.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31^st, 2014.