ABBOTTABAD, Oct 20: The Ayub Medical Complex has started shifting patients, including those injured during the earthquake, to other private and public-sector hospitals in Abbottabad after doctors refused to work in the building due to its dilapidated condition.

Sources said on Thursday that the hospital administration decided in the morning that they would not accept any more patients and the injured because the building has been declared dangerous owing to wide cracks appearing in its structure in the aftermath of the quake.

Doctors coming from other parts of the country with a mission to treat the quake-stricken people also refused to work indoors because of the delicate condition of the building, while patients could not be kept in the lawns owing to the extreme cold weather.

The 1600-bed Ayub Medical Complex has been reduced to a 200-bed establishment which is now functioning in a tent village set up in its lawns. No new patient is being admitted there.

The earthquake victims are now being shifted to other hospitals of the province as biting cold has made it impossible to put the injured and other patients out in the open.

A team of experts is due to visit the building but wide cracks and damage done to parts of the building structure are so apparent that a layman can vouch for its being unsafe.