PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has ordered the immediate termination of the Lady Reading Hospital’s director and suspension of the head of the paediatrics emergency department over what he called poor performance and lack of patient care at the province’s largest hospital.

However, chairman of the hospital’s board of governors Prof Nausherwan Barki told Dawn that the BoG would hold a “proper” inquiry into the matter before deciding about any action against the two officials.

Later, spokesman for the LRH Mohammad Asim revealed the formation of an inquiry committee, saying it will present a report within three days.

He said that anyone found negligent of duty would face punitive action.

BoG chairman says inquiry will be held to decide action

The LRH has been governed by a board of governors under the Medical Teaching Institution Reforms Act since 2015, with members drawn from the private sector.

Earlier, the health department had the administrative control of it and other MTIs in the province.

The department apprised the LRH BoG of the chief minister’s orders for terminating the hospital director and suspending paediatrics emergency head through a letter on Wednesday.

Titled “Public inconvenience, poor performance and lack of facilitation to the patients and their relatives,” the letter read that after a video went viral on social media regarding non-provision of timely medical treatment to a newborn baby, the CM paid a surprise visit to the LRH Paeds emergency department on Dec 16 midnight to “assess the situation” and found patient care “more pathetic than that of what was reported.”

“The attendants’ feedback supplemented the evidence of poor patient care,” the letter quoted the CM as saying.

He also inspected the Paeds emergency department and met patients and their attendants to assess the quality of healthcare services being provided to them.

According to the letter, the chief minister voiced serious dissatisfaction with the overall performance of the hospital, particularly regarding patient management, cleanliness, staff responsiveness and adherence to standard operating procedures and noted that 1800-bed largest tertiary care hospital received a substantial annual budget of Rs8 billion from the provincial exchequer and was expected to ensure the provision of prompt, efficient and adequate medical care, particularly to emergency cases and vulnerable patients such as newborn babies.

“Any lapse in this regard is beyond expectations. The poor quality care is a matter of serious concern. The administrative handling has fallen significantly below acceptable standards expected of a healthcare institution of this standing,” he noted.

Mr Afridi said such administrative lapses adversely impacted patient safety, public confidence and the reputation of the hospital.

He said that the health sector remained a top priority for his government, so negligence at any level was unacceptable.

The letter read that the chief minister conveyed that the hospital director’s poor performance warrants his immediate removal from the office.

“After being dissatisfied with the quality of health care and performance of the administrative set-up, which brought a bad name for the institution and the provincial government, immediate termination of the services of the HD is desired by the CM,” it read.

The chief minister also asked the BoG chairman to place the head of Paeds emergency department under suspension and initiate a fact-finding inquiry and said a compliance report regarding the directives should be submitted to him today (Wednesday), according to the letter.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2025