LAHORE: Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz came hard on health minister Khawaja Salman Rafique and health secretary Azmat Mahmood when she was informed that both of them had asked about the two major incidents at the Nishtar Hospital Multan and the Children Hospital Lahore by mere phone calls rather than visiting the institutes to supervise the inquiries. She held the minister as well as the secretary equally responsible for the mishaps and called them irresponsible for ignoring their obligations.

The CM was upset with two authorities in the wake of the outbreak of HIV/AIDS at Nishtar Hospital and death of an autistic child found in a manhole at the Children Hospital.

An official privy to the development said the secretary and the minister flared up the CM following the reports that they were least interested in their jobs in the health sector. He said the secretary wanted to be transferred to any other department (preferably home department) to avoid public dealing while the minister also wanted to change his health portfolio. That’s why both of them didn’t visit the hospitals to inquire into the incidents and issued verbal directions, leaving the families of the patients high and dry. Consequently, the CM ordered probes to be carried out by the law enforcement agencies and other officials when she was told that the hospital high-ups had constituted inquiries to generate findings of choice.

The source said the CM got annoyed as the inquiry reports conducted by the institutes as well as those carried out on her order presented absolutely conflicting findings. It shocked her to see that the inquiry carried out by the Children Hospital into the death of the minor autistic boy in the manhole had declared the mother responsible. She was informed that Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique visited the hospital days after the incident when the news was all over the media and social media. The minister supported the management to rescue its medical director as the manhole was located right behind his office.

Similarly, the CM was informed that the Nishtar Hospital Multan management had first kept the matter hushed up for a month, then held its own inquiry and blamed the patients for carrying the virus from private labs.

The inquiry reports of four departments unveiled to the CM unanimously that the hospital had tampered with the record as well that further ignited her wrath.

In the recent meetings she chaired in the wake of the two incidents, when Maryam asked Mr Mahmood and Mr Rafique why they didn’t visit the hospitals, they failed to justify their positions.

“If these incidents were not on your priority list, what else would you prefer to take seriously,” the official quoted the CM as saying.

The official revealed that Maryam Nawaz had dropped Khawaja Salman Rafique from the list of the officials accompanying her during her last visit to the Multan hospital as she was unhappy over his performance despite being a political figure.

Mr Rafique confirmed to Dawn that he couldn’t visit the institutes timely to inquire into the incidents as there was a huge burden of the assignments of multiple government departments, including the law and order situation, he was discharging at the same time.

“Despite that I remained in contact with the administrations of the two hospitals by phone, issued directions for timely investigations to bring facts to the public,” he asserted.

Unfortunately, he added, the NMU VC and other admin officers misled the health authorities, hushed up the matter and tampered with the record and the series of blunders and negligence annoyed the CM.

“Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz is our leader and she can question me and others as we are answerable to her for the jobs and performance,” Mr Rafique said and declared it a matter of difference of opinion rather than anything else. He added that as the health minister, he tried his best to rectify/improve the system to avoid more such incidents in the future.

Health secretary Azmat Mahmood refused to comment on the matter.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2024