KOHAT, Oct 4: The Kohat Medical College management 'reoccupied' the other day three rooms of KDA Divisional Hospital rooms allotted for a cancer satellite hospital.

Manager administration, KMC Zafar Khan on Tuesday defended the move, saying the rooms were given to them for use as hostel of female students and therefore, the college did nothing wrong by removing the cancer satellite hospital's equipment and furniture.

He further told Dawn that movement of female students from their distantly located university to the hospital for house job and back on a daily basis, especially after sunset, wasn't possible under the current delicate security conditions.

Zafar said under the original agreement, KDA Divisional Hospital had given the college 12 private rooms for use as hostel, adding that six more rooms were allotted to the college.

“Of late, the college allotted three of our rooms for the cancer clinic in violation of the agreement,” he said. The cancer satellite hospital funded by the Hungarian MOL oil and exploration company was inaugurated by MNA Khursheed Begum last Thursday. The hospital, first of its kind in the southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was to provide cancer diagnosis and consultation to people in the area and adjoining tribal areas.

Under the plan, a senior doctor from Peshawar was to visit it every fortnight to examine patients for cancer and refer complicated cases to a cancer hospital in Peshawar. It is learnt that the Hungarian MOL company has been asked by the hospital administration to find a new place for establishing the cancer hospital.

Medical superintendent KDA Hospital Dr Omar Khan and MNA Khursheed Begum couldn't be contacted for comments. — Abdul Sami Paracha