PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday expressed reservations about the reports of some senior doctors of the Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, resigning or going on long leave and directed the government not to leave major hospitals at the mercy of junior doctors.

Justice Qaiser Rasheed and Justice Ghazanfar Khan asked health minister Hasham Inamullah that he was free to take action against doctors not performing duty properly but senior doctors should not be targeted on the pretext of institutional reforms to the extent that they begin quitting job or going on long leave.

The bench had taken notice of the reports in question a day ago and asked the health minister and health secretary to appear before it to explain the matter.

Asks govt not to leave hospital at mercy of juniors

The development came during the hearing into a petition filed by Professor Mohammad Jehangir Khan against his removal as the dean of Qazi Hussain Ahmad Medical Complex, Nowshera, a medical teaching institution.

Mr Hasham Inamullah told the bench that the government had been planning to set up a council consisting of a retired judge and a senior lawyer to address the grievances of doctors.

He said the court’s reservations on the matter would be properly addressed, while all decisions in that respect would be made on merit.

The bench observed that if the government was interested in reforming the health delivery system, it should improve coordination between senior and junior doctors as there was no replacement for experience.

It added that it was not appropriate to force senior doctors to either resign or go on long leave.

Justice Qaiser Rahseed wondered if all senior doctors would quit, then who would train junior doctors.

When the minister turned up, the bench asked why senior LRH doctors have been resigning and why important departments have been left at the mercy of junior doctors. The minister said the government’s prime objective was the welfare of poor patients and improvement of the health delivery system.

He said the government wanted to introduce a proper system of check and balance.

Mr Hasham claimed that some senior doctors were stopped from performing surgeries lately as death rate in operations done by them was more than the internationally permissible limits.

He said the government was striving to improve the district level health facilities and transfer doctors and therefore, the doctors opposed to those reforms went on a strike.

The bench asked the minister that he should definitely take action against the errant doctors but it should not make it an excuse to target senior doctors.

It observed that the government should improve the district level health facilities and bring it on a par with MTIs like LRH and others after which senior doctors would be willingly go there. The bench observed that as hospital of Bannu and DI Khan lacked facilities, patients came to Peshawar even for minor surgeries.

Meanwhile, the bench directed the provincial government to file comments in the Dr Jehangir Khan appointment case.

Dr Jehangir claimed that he was recently made dean of MTI for five years but few days ago, the board of governors ordered his removal against the MTI Reforms Act, 2015.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2019