PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has directed the health department to carry out inspections of the medical teaching institutions in the province and ensure that patients get quality treatment.

In this connection, health secretary Shahidullah Khan on Thursday visited the MTI Lady Reading Hospital, the province’s oldest health facility, where he expressed concern over the “pathetic conditions as well as lack of cleanliness, poor staff attendance and lack of patient registration desks” in the OPD block, according to sources.

They said contrary to such visits in the past where secretaries were accompanied by the medical or hospital directors, Mr Shahidullah, while keeping a low profile, met patients and went to the registration counter and noted shortcomings, according to sources.

“It was a surprise visit due to which the LRH administration didn’t accompany the secretary. The visit was conducted on the directives of the chief minister,” an official told Dawn on condition of anonymity.

The MTIs recently came under criticism due to the “declining quality of patient care and irregularities in appointments to executive positions” by their boards of governors (BoGs).

Following the enforcement of the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act, 2015, 11 teaching hospitals and their affiliated colleges have slipped out of the health department’s control and are run by BoGs, members of which are drawn from the private sector.

Sources said that the government had no option except to swing into action because the members of BoGs, all retired people, were calling the shots with no say of the health secretary who led a comprehensive system, including the secretariat and directorate general health services, to supervise the entire health infrastructure, including 2,600 hospitals and about 90,000 employees.

“The MTIs continue to get funds from the government and this year received Rs80b, up from Rs65 billion in 2025-26 but the government has no control over them while the government is facing criticism for anomalies in MTIs,” they said. The secretary will visit more MTIs and will present a report to the government,” a source said.

He said the CM also instructed the secretary to call a meeting of the executives of all MTIs and direct them to put their houses in order.

The sources said that last December, the chief minister visited the LRH and ordered the removal of the hospital director for poor patient care but wasn’t removed and allowed to complete his five-year term.

They said as if that wasn’t enough, the same HD was re-appointed in MTI-Mardan Medical Complex by the BoG in total disregard of CM’s directives.

The sources said the MTIs were the biggest tertiary care hospitals which remained under the health department before the enforcement of the MTIRA and the government through the secretary took corrective measures in case of complaints but now BoGs running MTIs arbitrarily was causing embarrassment to the government.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2026