PESHAWAR: The directives by health department to restrain Board of Governors (BoG) from making major decisions is likely to provide an opportunity to the lone transplant surgeon at Institute of Kidney Diseases to continue his service despite termination of extension in his contract.

On March 19, the BoG of Hayatabad Medical Complex in its 28th meeting issued a notification, stating that it agreed with the recommendations of a committee constituted to probe issues at Institute of Kidney Diseases (IKD) and decided to take action as per its report. It decided not to renew contract of the transplant surgeon.

HMC is among the 10 medical teaching institutions (MTIs) that have been stopped from making major policy decisions. On March 12, health department through a notification barred BoGs of MTIs from new recruitments, promotions, terminations and procurement of items owing to reports of unprecedented apprehensions of irregularities.

The notification said that health minister desired to impose ban on BoGs and other high-ups of MTIs to take major decisions in view of the recent reports of irregularities in the affairs of those institutions.

Health dept has stopped BoGs of teaching hospitals from major decisions

The department told all the 10 MTIs in the province that non-compliance of the instructions would strengthen the apprehensions regarding irregularities. “Compliance may be ensured in letter and spirit to avoid uninterrupted provision of grants and cooperation by health department,” it said.

Sources said that the order of Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) was not implementable in the wake of the government’s ban on BoGs to make policy decisions. IKD, constituent of HMC, is the only public sector hospital in the province that conducts renal transplants.

However, with the retirement of Prof Asif Malik, transplants came to a standstill. Last year, IKD on the recommendation of the previous BoG recruited a transplant surgeon Dr Shahid Ahmed Khan on contractual basis. His tenure is going to end in December 2024.

“Under the supervision of Dr Shahid Ahmed Khan, IKD has conducted 41 transplants so far while scores of other patients are waiting to undergo procedures,” said sources. IKD has recently established 23-bed transplant wards and six-bed intensive care unit.

Sources said that some medics in IKD were opposed to hiring the services of an outsider as transplant surgeon and lodged complaints with BoG, which issued notification without giving receptive ears to the director of the institute.

“Last month, a video posted on social media showed a cockroach in the operation theatre. It was not a video of operation theatre,” they said. The BoG of the institute took a decision about cockroach’s presence in operation theatre coupled with complaints of doctors, who were unhappy with the recruitment of transplant surgeon from outside, they said.

“Nevertheless, the transplant surgeon has been appointed by BoG on recommendation of a committee that had been tasked to re-start transplants. The move is likely to negatively impact patients, who want to undergo procedures at the public hospital,” said sources.

Meanwhile, Provincial Doctors Association has criticised the decision of the board of HMC. In a statement, it said that issuance of a notification to cancel the contract of transplant surgeon without any reason was unwarranted and uncalled for because under him the transplant programme in IKD was running with full speed. It said that more than 40 cases were conducted at the institute during the past one year with 100 per cent success rate.

“The notification is illegal as on March 8, the government has ordered BoGs of MTIs to refrain from taking any decision till further order,” said the statement.

However, the chairman of BoG of HMC, Ghulam Qadir Khan said that it was the other way round. “Giving a new contract will be a major decision,” he added.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2024