MIANWALI, July 20: The district headquarters hospital saw a tense atmosphere on Thursday when medical superintendent Dr Farooq Ahmad Khan refused to relinquish his charge despite receipt of transfer orders from the district nazim.

A day earlier, District Nazim Obaidullah Khan Shadikhel ordered transfer of Dr Farooq and his subordinates when he found administrative irregularities at the hospital during a surprise visit.

Information gleaned by this correspondent revealed that the nazim paid a surprise visit to the hospital in response to persistent complaints and was shocked to find many doctors, including the MS, absent, though the attendance register showed them present.

During the visit, the nazim had to face a mob of patients and their relatives who surrounded him and apprised him of their miseries they had been facing for treatment. They complained that the doctors did not visit the wards regularly and often came late.

In most of the cases, they said, the DHQ hospital doctors referred the patients to private clinics where they charged them (the visitors) arbitrarily high fees. Some patients complained that the heart specialist rarely visited the hospital, as he spent most of the time at his clinic on the Ballokhel Road. “His agents at the hospital refer the patients to the private health facility,” they alleged.

He also took stock of insanitary conditions in wards

stinking and littered with garbage.

The nazim immediately ordered transfer of MS Dr Farooq Ahmad to the DHO office where he is already working against dual charges, and appointed Dr Muhammad Khan to the post of MS. He also ordered transfer of Medical Officer Dr Zafar Iqbal and dental surgeon Dr Muhammad Iqbal to the Punjab health secretary office in Lahore. Heart specialist Dr Rab Nawaz Raja’s contract had been terminated.

The nazim also suspended head clerk Haq Nawaz Khattak for posing himself as superintendent and forging the attendance register, ordering an inquiry against him.

The doctor mafia, however, gave little respect to the orders of the district head and attended their offices where the visitors were not expecting them.

When contacted, Dr Farooq defended his decision of not relinquishing the charge and said at the time of nazim’s surprise visit to hospital he was busy in anti-polio campaign. Before leaving the hospital, he said, he had informed the EDO (health) and gave charge to another doctor.

Answering a question, he said the transfer orders by the nazim were illegal as the latter was not competent to transfer him. “And if there are some complaints against me, the nazim can refer the case to the Punjab government which can issue my transfer orders.” To order transfer and posting of the MS, the DHO and the EDO (health) was the sole prerogative of the provincial government, he averred.

The EDO (health), Dr Mumtaz Ahmad, could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Earlier, nazim Obaidullah Khan told journalists that since the district government was spending a considerable chunk of its budget on health, it was expecting the doctors to come up to the expectations of the people. They were, however, minting money at the cost of health of poor patients.

He said he had received numerous complaints against the doctors and warned them time and again but all his efforts to improve the community’s image had yielded no result.

He said being the head of the district, he was competent to transfer any officer of a devolved department on disciplinary grounds. He said he had taken the action on merit and the Punjab government would certainly endorse it.

It is pertinent to note that almost all doctors posted here belong to the district and have a role in deep-seated politics. Many local politicians are likely to plunge into the arena and cash in on the rift which has been created after the ‘bold’ step of the nazim.

The public circles have urged the Punjab government authorities to endorse the nazim’s orders which, they say, are in the interest of the ailing people.