27 June 2004	Sunday	08 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

PESHAWAR, June 26: Doctors at the teaching hospitals of the city are illegally receiving money from the admitted patients in the garb of donations, health workers told Dawn.

"The patients who are hospitalized in the side-rooms of the wards, pay between Rs200 and Rs1,000 to the registrars of the wards in the name of donations. This is quite illegal, but the practice is in progress in all the teaching hospitals since long," said a staff nurse.

According to her, the registrars of the concerned wards do not give receipts to the patients and the money goes into the pockets of the doctors. She said bulk of the amount was spent by the doctors on arranging private parties.

"As there is no direct telephone line at the wards. Some of the senior doctors have installed telephone in their offices and the bills are paid from the money collected through donations from the patients," said a doctor at one of the city hospitals, The administration, he said, had issued directives several times to stop receiving donations from the patients, but the orders have fallen on deaf ears.

Every ward at the three hospitals - Khyber Teaching Hospital, Lady Reading Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex - have got three to six side-rooms. Two of these side-rooms are single-bedded, whereas four are two-bedded. The patients, who want privacy, contact the registrars of the concerned wards to get side-rooms for which they pay money.

A Mardan-based doctor said he had to pay Rs1,000 at one of the hospitals, while accompanying his ailing mother. He said he knew that it was illegal, but his mother, being in serious condition, needed at least three persons to be present at her bedside to look after her.

"Basically, these side-rooms are meant for the critically-ill patients, who needed the support of many attendants at the hospitals. But the doctors at the wards have started minting money in the garb of donations, which had no record whatsoever," said the doctor.

A senior professor, who heads a medical ward at one of the hospitals, said they received donations from the patients from which they purchased soap, spirit, linen, etc., for the ward.

He said the government was not providing some necessary stuff to the wards and they had no option but to 'charge' the patients for the same.

The money is usually collected through ward orderlies. A ward orderly at a gynaecology ward of a teaching hospital, said a patient was shifted to general ward when she refused to pay the donation.

"The doctors go out on picnic once a month, which is organised by the registrar on the money collected under the head of donation," he said. According to him, some of the patients were extremely poor but still they were forced to pay donations.

A registrar said receiving donations was illegal but, he claimed, these were paid by the patients at their own will.

"From the donations' money we get the ward whitewashed, purchase tubelights and fulfil other requirements. We have recently built cupboards in the wards which are used by the doctors," he said, defending the practice.

In one of the ward, a dispenser informed, each and every patient pay Rs1,000 as donation, because the patients had to stay in single rooms of the ward.

"The poor patients are admitted on benches instead of beds, but side-rooms are given to them even when these are unoccupied," said a staff nurse at a teaching hospital.

The medical superintendent of an hospital reportedly told a dispenser to collect donation from the patients and carry out maintenance work because the hospital had no funds.

The dispenser's request was turned down when he said that an office order be issued in this regard.