April 08, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 19, 1428

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FAISALABAD, April 7: The Allied Hospital administration has allegedly spent millions of rupees earmarked for medicines on road construction and paying increments to doctors.

Sources told Dawn on Saturday that the hospital administration had released the increment of January amounting to Rs2 million from the medicine budget while the remaining amount would be released next month. Besides, it had made payment for the construction of 400-meter long road for the hospital from the same allocation. The budget released for the road project was approximately Rs4 million.

The staff of the Allied Hospital and the Punjab Medical College which has been given increments is: 133 registrars, 134 house officers, 144 regular medical officers, 13 professors and nearly 50 teachers of the PMC.

Sources said that after misusing the budget for medicines, the administration was trying its level best to cover up the issue to avoid inquires.

The Punjab government had issued a notification on Jan 17 this year announcing incentives to doctors. It increased stipend of house officers from Rs6,210 to Rs12,000 and postgraduate trainees from Rs10,000 to Rs15,000 with an annual increment of Rs1,000 for both.

It also announced teaching allowance for the staff in basic sciences. According to the notification, Rs30,000 would be given to professor, Rs20,000 to associate professors, Rs15,000 to assistant professors and Rs5,000 to demonstrators. Special allowance was also announced for anesthetists.

All hospital administrations were directed to consider the enforcement of notification from Jan 1, 2007. However, the Allied Hospital administration failed to meet the new changes which enraged its doctors.

The doctors kept pressing the administration for giving them the incentives at the earliest. A joint doctor’s action committee was constituted when the administration failed to release the incentives for two months. The committee held a series of meetings with Punjab Medical College Principal Dr AG Rehan, who is also the principal of the Allied and district headquarters hospitals.

The doctors’ committee gave a token strike call for March 26 over the administration’s failure to pay them increments and the doctors did not attend patients in the OPD and some other wards. The emergency unit, however, worked as usual.

Sources said Dr Rehan promised to resolve the issue of the doctors as he was not in a position to face any protest because of his tenure extension matter. “The principal is going to retire from his services next month and he has been making all-out efforts to get extension.”

In order to placate the doctors, sources said, Dr Rehan decided to divert the budget for medicines to the increments. They said the principal of the institution enjoyed immense authority as the government declared the hospital an autonomous body in 2003.

Dr AG Rehan, however, denied the charge of spending medicine budget on road construction. “Not a penny out of the medicine budget has been spent to construct any road for the hospital,” he said, but gave no response to the issue of payment of increments to doctors. He said ample quantity of medicines was available in the wards.

Allied Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Khalid, on the other hand, admitted that the medicine budget had been utilised for road construction. “There is nothing unlawful in doing as we shall adjust the amount soon after receiving budget from the government,” he said.

A doctor, who requested anonymity, confirmed that the increment had been released from the medicine budget as it was promised by Dr Rehan during a meeting.