FAISALABAD, Nov 1: Patients at Allied Hospital are suffering from the hardships arose in the wake of the administration’s decision to shuffle wards. The administration shuffled wards from Oct 27 without considering the requirements of patients and infrastructure of wards, Dawn reveals.

Patients at Ibrahim and Hamza wards —- both medicine treatment facilities — have to wait for hours for their turn to get oxygen.

Doctors have also been struggling to get rid of trouble as result of the shuffle but to no avail.

Sources say the two wards housing 100 beds have a centrally-organised oxygen delivery system. The system was installed a couple of years ago at a cost of Rs2 million. At the moment the patients of these wards are being provided oxygen at their new wards through separate cylinders.

A doctor at Ibrahim Ward, requesting anonymity, said Ibrahim and Hamza wards had been converted into surgery wards which had rendered the oxygen delivery system useless because surgery patients did not need as much oxygen as patients of medicine wards.

Sources said the oxygen delivery system could not be installed in days, as it was a matter of months because of lengthy legal procedure.

He said decision of shifting wards had been taken without considering the requirements of patients.

The patients of Orthopaedic Ward have been shifted to Rehmat Ward, Urology Ward to Usman Ward, Rehmat Ward to Hamza Ward, Medical Unit-II to Siddique Ward, Siddique Ward to Ibrahim Ward and Hussain Ward to Ibrahim Ward. Dr Rasool Chaudhry, orthopaedic surgery professor, notified the shuffle of wards. This notification should have been issued by newly-appointed Punjab Medical College Principal Dr Asghar Ali Randhawa, who is also the chief executive of Allied Hospital.

Senior doctors of the hospital also lambasted the decision of wards shuffle, saying the administration did not consult them over the issue.

Dr Randhawa issued a directive on Oct 22 under which he constituted a three-member committee, consisting of Dr Rasool Chaudhry, Dr Zahid Yasin Hashmi and Dr Yousaf Shah, to ascertain the needs of new wards. But Dr Chaudhry did not convene any meeting of the committee to discuss the issue, which angered senior doctors.

They criticised Dr Chaudhry and held him responsible for the chaos gripping the patients.

Sources said Dr Chaudhry remained tight-lipped over the issue when doctors asked him at an informal meeting. The principal pacified senior doctors, saying the administration would try to lessen the miseries of patients in days.

Dr Randhawa refused to comment on the situation and disconnected his cell phone, saying that he was too busy to explain the issue.

Patients’ families and attendants dragged beds, cupboards, drip stands and benches on their own when they were asked to shift to other wards, and hospital staffers did not help them shift to new wards.

The employees shifted only their own belongings and they used attendants to transport official luggage to new destinations.