SWABI, Aug 8: Patients form various areas in the district have accused doctors working in government hospitals of bothering only about their private practice and taking no interest in their official duty.

They said that most of the doctors used the government hospitals only as contact points to lure the patients to their clinics. The doctors and their staff discouraged people from coming to hospitals for check-up and advise them to see them in their private clinics, they said.

Looking at the deplorable situation in the hospitals, district nazim Jehan Zeb Khan, who assumed power on June 1, said that his top priority would be to provide health facilities to people and his most important job would be to ensure that doctors perform their duties properly.

Official sources said that the nazim had already warned the doctors to treat hospital patients honestly and their negligence would no longer be tolerated. The sources said that the nazim was expected to meet the doctors in a few days to discus the matter with them.

"I have taken my little son Najamuddin to a private hospital because I was well aware of the fact that the doctors in government hospitals were reluctant to attend to patients there," said one Chaman Khan.

Some patients said that usually it was difficult to find a doctor in a hospital even if a patient was dying. They said if a patient was in severe discomfort he would be given a Valium injection. Patients facing emergency are referred straight to hospitals in Mardan or Peshawar.