FAISALABAD, April 29: Scores of outdoor and indoor patients at district headquarters hospital are suffering owing to acute shortage of charge and head nurses. The 629-bed hospital is also attached with the Punjab Medical College as a teaching hospital for imparting medical education to students.

The hospital record revealed that average 25,000 indoor patients used to visit the hospital as a result it usually remained overcrowded. According to the Pakistan Nursing Council rules, a hospital should have 323 charge and 46 head nurses as against its present strength of 52 and seven.

Medical experts are of the opinion that for treatment in hospital, especially in emergency, nurses are required to be available at all costs.

In 2004, as many as 1,771 indoor patients expired in other wards of the DHQ hospital in addition to 51 in emergency department.

ACE: The anti-corruption establishment (ACE) arrested a sub-engineer of the small industries department for allegedly receiving bribe from an industrialist here on Thursday.

An ACE team, headed by its circle officer Rizwanul Haq, raided the office of Mushtaq Ahmed and caught him red-handed while receiving currency notes from complainant Noor Muhammad.

The accused has been sent to jail after registration of a case against him.