MIANWALI: The Mianwali District Headquarters Hospital medical superintendent (MS) has refused to approvea Rs4.6 million laundrybill for March presented to him for approval by a recently-hired health department contractor.

Department insiders say the previous provincial government outsourced certain health department’s services to companies which caused huge losses to the government.

The incumbent government chose to keep the practice on and awarded a contract to the M/S Mustahlik Enterprises, Lahore, which presented the first laundry bill for approval.

MS Dr Mohammad Rafique Khan says that the contractor uses the hospital’s laundry machines on the instructions of high ups and even then they came up with such a huge bill for the 300-bed hospital.

He said earlier the hospital staff was operating the laundry which had an average monthly bill of less than Rs100,000 a month. He said he had asked the firm to approach the contract awarding authority for the payment.

Dr Khan said other hospitals in Punjab had also refused to approve such unbelievable bills. He said a couple of days ago, a Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department team from Lahore visited Mianwali and inquired about the issue.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2021