HARIPUR: The administration of District Headquarters Hospital, Haripur, has laid off 15 medical officers and 45 employees adversely affecting both patient care and hospital affairs.

Sources told Dawn that 45 employees, including guards, gardeners and ward attendants, were told not to come to work from July 1 in light of the end of their employment contract’s term.

They also said 15 doctors, who were working on a contractual basis, had also stopped doing their respective duties.

The sources said all those employees were hired from the resources collected under the Health Management Board fund, whose big chunk was paid by an Abbottabad-based private medical college.

The college’s third, fourth and final year students have been attending to the hospital’s patients for over a decade as part of their practical work.

When contacted, DHQ medical superintendent Dr Saifullah Khalid confirmed layoffs and said they would adversely affect patient care and the upkeep of gardens and janitorial work.

He said he had written to the health secretary for the early filling of the vacant posts of medical officers, specialists and other staff for the better functioning of the hospital.

DROWNED: A boy drowned in the River Daur here on Monday while bathing. The divers fished out the body of 10-year-old ShehzadaRehan and shifted it to the Trauma Centre.

SUICIDE: A teenage girl committed suicide in a remote village of Beer village on Sunday night.

Khan Bahadur told police that his 14-year-old daughter, Irum Bibi, had killed herself by consuming a poisonous substance after getting into an altercation with mother over a domestic issue. The police began investigation.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2019