LAHORE, Dec 2: Shaikh Zayed Hospital is facing some administrative, academic and financial challenges which are being seen as the emerging crisis in coming days if the government continues to be indifferent to its affairs.

The hospital was known as one of the state-of-the-art institutes for the treatment of top bureaucrats and other VIP patients with more than Rs400 million annual budget when it was under the administrative control of the cabinet division.

The issues started piling up since it was transferred to the Punjab government in February 2012 along with all other components, an official privy to the development told Dawn.

The components included Shaikh Khalifa Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Medical and Dental College, Shaikh Zayed Postgraduate Medical Institute and Sheikh Fatima Institute of Nursing and Health Sciences.

“The institute is fast losing its dignity both in medical and healthcare sectors and one of the major factors behind its downfall is said to be the indifferent attitude of the Punjab government,” he said.

He said Shaikh Zayed Hospital suffered a major dent in the form of drastic annual budget cut which was reduced from Rs480 million to Rs220 million. The budget curtailment adversely affected financial, administrative, academic and even service care matters.

The official said: “It is yet unclear as to who will run it – the Punjab government or the federal government – as a parliamentary panel has again recommended to giving back administrative control of the Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore, to the federal government.”

He said the Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination in its recommendations in October this year stated that the patients and employees had been suffering ever since its control was given to the Punjab province.

Owing to the financial crunch, the hospital has been facing an acute shortage of medicines and funds for salaries of faculty, doctors as well as other employees.

“Currently, the institute is facing a deficit of approximately Rs220 million and the major factor is annual budget cut.

“Inactive Board of Governors (BoG) is another critical issue which has brought several affairs of the institute to almost ‘standstill’. The Punjab government has failed to reconstitute BoG of the institute since it got its administrative control,” he said.

The official said the Punjab government had constituted a transition committee. Headed by Senator Ishaq Dar, the committee was given full mandate to run all matters of the institute in the absence of the BoG.

Unfortunately, the official said, the committee did not meet for the last one year or so as Ishaq Dar could not spare time.

Shortage of senior faculty and financial crisis of Shaikh Khalifa Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Medical and Dental College have also emerged as major problems as the Punjab government has recently reduced its fee structure from Rs400,000 to Rs41,000 only.

“Neither the government has allocated funds for tuition fee against allocated seats for the college nor evolved any proposal in this regard.

“The college does not have its own faculty and more than 25 medical teachers have been hired to impart education to undergraduates from the Shaikh Zayed Postgraduate Medical Institute for the last five year or so,” he said.

These teachers were being paid each Rs100,000 as additional monthly incentive since then. “As the major source of their salaries was the handsome tuition fee structure of the medical college, its administration has no funds to pay them due to revised fee structure,” he said, adding that the college is still functioning without its own faculty.

Shaikh Zayed Hospital Chairman/Dean Prof Dr Zafar Iqbal is going to retire from his service by June and Professor of Anaesthesia Dr Muhammad Nauman Ali is said to be the next contender for this top post for being senior among his colleagues.

The official said: “Since the BoG and the transition committee are not active, the selection of a suitable candidate as head of the institute may delay.

Health Additional Secretary (Technical) and Focal Person for Shaikh Zayed Hospital Dr Anwar Janjua clarified the position of the government saying that the Board of Trustees of the institute is the supreme body which actually reconstitutes BoG.

He said as the Board of Trustees was also to be reconstituted, the health department had sent a summary to the Punjab chief minister to forward it to the President of Pakistan a year ago.

“The President of Pakistan is the chairman/patron-in-chief of the Board of Trustees. As a representative of King of UAE is also made a member of the board, the process of its constitution may take time,” he said.

About scarcity of funds and faculty, Dr Janjua said he had already asked the SZH chairman to submit a proposal to the finance department for the supplementary grant to run financial affairs of the institute.

He said the health department had not yet received any proposal from the institute to forward it to the authorities concerned for subsidised medical education.