FAISALABAD, Oct 28: Around 100 patients, including women and children, are languishing in the corridors of Allied Hospital after the administration hurriedly decided to shift different wards from their present locations, Dawn learnt on Sunday.

The hospital administration gave its employees and patients admitted to its various wards only four days to vacate their wards along with all their paraphernalia and shift to new locations by Monday (today), which is the deadline to complete what the sources claimed ‘an unplanned task’.

Sources said Dr Asghar Ali Randhawa, the newly-appointed principal of the Punjab Medical College (PMC) and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Allied Hospital, decided to shift various wards from their current locations to ‘facilitate’ the patients and medical staffers.

According to a notification issued by an orthopaedic surgery professor, Gulam Rasool Chaudhry, instead of CEO Dr Randhawa, hospital’s Orthopaedic Ward was ordered to be shifted to Rehmat Ward, Urology to Usman Ward, Rehmat Ward to Hamza Ward, Medical Unit-II to Siddique Ward, Siddique Ward to Ibrahim Ward and Husain Ward to Ibrahim Ward.

The sources said no feasibility report was prepared to execute this hectic task, and patients and staffers were left to suffer the outcome of a single stroke of pen.

Attendants and family members were asked to shift their patients outside the wards as employees could make necessary changes according to their new requirements. Though the patients and their attendants raised hue and cry over the decision, but had no option except to vacate the wards.

The sources said attendants were allegedly threatened that their patients would be discharged by force if they did not succumb to the instructions issued by the administration regarding the shifting of wards, and around 100 patients were languishing in the corridors of the hospital till the filing of this report.

Patients’ families and attendants dragged beds, cupboards, drip stands and benches on their own, and hospital staffers did not provide them any sort of help.

The employees were removing and shifting only those belongings in which they were interested. They even made attendants their loaders and carriers to transport official luggage to its new destinations.

The staff of Ibrahim Ward removed all ceiling fans, tube-lights, air-conditioners and other equipment. The ward had recently been renovated at a cost of around Rs1 million.

During this mega shifting operations, the hospital presented a war-like condition where people have been roaming around haphazardly to accommodate their patients.

Nasir Ali, a patient of the Orthopaedic Ward, said presence of patients in the corridors reminded him of the situation when Pakistan came into being in 1947 when similar incidents occurred due to scarcity of medical facilities in the nascent country.

All employees, including doctors, nurses, ward boys and even sweepers, have also been transferred to their new destinations.

Waheed Ahmad, a patient of Hamza Ward, said it was illogical to suggest that all this shifting was meant to facilitate the patients and their families.

Several doctors are also unhappy over this decision, and the ensuing messy situation.

The sources claimed that the PMC principal decided to reshuffle wards only to accommodate his two friends, Dr Ghulam Rasool and Dr Zahid Iqbal. They also claimed that the hospital CEO did not take his superiors into confidence before making this decision.

The PMC principal said the administration wanted to set up two blocks — surgical and medical — to facilitate both patients and hospital staffers.

He said the proposed shifting would help families and visitors easily trace and look after their patients as well as hospital staffers to serve them more conveniently.

To a query about the plight of the patients staying in the corridors, Dr Randhawa said a committee was constituted to carry out the shifting task, and if the patients were facing any problem during the execution of the task that would be investigated immediately and thoroughly.

The hospital CEO dispelled the impression that he did all this only to accommodate his two friends.