PESHAWAR, Sept 25: The World Bank has expressed concerns over the delay in appointment of a foreign hospital administrator by the NWFP government, asking it to appoint someone who could help improve health delivery.

The health department is considering a number of managerial reforms at the teaching hospital level, including appointment of an international hospital administrator to manage a teaching hospital, the bank’s mission that recently visited the Frontier province and held meetings with health officials said in its report.

“The proposed appointment has been on hold, ostensibly due to security concerns, for several months. The proposal is a bold one and needs to be pursued as there are few skilled and experienced hospital administrators in the province,” the mission’s report claimed.

Sources in the health department said the World Bank officials wanted to persuade the government to appoint a foreigner as chief executive of the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), which had been put on hold.

They said the government had decided to appoint a foreigner as chief executive of the LRH with the financial and technical assistance of the GTZ last year.

The decision to appoint a foreigner as chief executive had been taken because the government — especially the top-ranking officials of the health department, including the provincial minister — were convinced that the LRH needed a professional manger.

Sources said the government’s recurrent expenditure on the LRH, which staffs 2,500 employees, was $6 million per year, but the institution’s performance was declining by the day which prompted the government to hire the services of a hospital manager.

Sources said that it had been decided that the government would pay Rs150,000 per month to the newly-appointed chief executive, while the rest of the amount would be paid by the Centre for International Migration, an organisation of the German government.

They said the NWFP government had advertised the post in the Economist magazine of the UK. Around 60 candidates from various countries applied for the post and a German citizen was selected.

The health department sent a summary to the chief minister to seek his approval and notify the appointment of the chief executive in March. The summary was still awaited to be sent to the health secretariat.

Sources said the health minister reportedly received a call from Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad, asking him not to appoint a German as chief executive of the LRH.

Sources said that the minister had managed to convince Mr Qazi on the appointment of a German as it was in the public interest, but the JI chief made another call later asking the minister to postpone the process.