PESHAWAR, Aug 8: Doctors in the teaching hospitals of the city are receiving illegal donations from patients in violation of the health department’s directives. “A month ago, the health minister issued a directive against getting donations from patients. But patients continue to pay,” said, a dispenser in one of the hospitals. He said donations were being received from patients on the instructions of the professor in charge of a ward.

Sources said patients in the Khyber Teaching Hospital, Lady Reading Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex were forced to pay donations. Records of such payments were not kept.

Each of the hospitals has 30 or more wards with four to six rooms each. Some patients admitted to the rooms were forced to donate between Rs300 and Rs1,000, they said.

“The money is often used for entertainment of doctors and there is no record of the donations,” said a junior registrar in the HMC. He said the health minister had objected to the practice and asked the chief executives of the three hospitals to curb it.

In some of the wards, patients were issued receipts but the money was spent for personal matters, a medical officer said.

“We admit only those patients in the side rooms who need more attendants,” said a nurse in a medical ward of the Khyber Teaching Hospital.

In most of the wards, the donations are collected by dispensers or staff nurses on behalf of the officers in charge.

Recently, a relative of a patient lodged complaint with the administration when asked by a dispenser for donations.

“The dispenser was called by the medical superintendent and warned, but he said he was doing so on the directives of a professor,” a clerk in a hospital said.

A professor said the donations were used for cleanliness and maintenance of the wards. “We receive very little stuff for cleanliness from hospital’s store,” he said. He said record of receipts and expenditure of the donations was maintained.