PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Minister Shaukat Yousafzai on Sunday withdrew suspension orders of senior doctors at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) and directed formation of a committee to probe the allegations levelled by a 13-year girl and her mother that she was not properly examined by doctors.
The health minister had issued verbal orders suspending services of the LRH’s Medical Superintendent Dr Iqbal Afridi, gynaecologist Prof Dr Gul Rukh Qazi and senior registrar of gynaecology department Dr Sumera for their alleged failure to reach the hospital and medically examine the 13-year- old girl.
The girl was kidnapped from Akora Khattak in Nowshera district, the native area of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, on September 23 and was brought to the LRH after recovery on Saturday.
According to official sources, she was brought to the LRH casualty department where the doctors after initial examination referred her to the psychiatry ward as she was in ‘acute confused stage’ apparently due to mental shock she suffered during kidnapping and subsequent captivity.
In the psychiatry ward, the doctors examined her and then referred her to medical and gynaecology wards to seek opinion of the doctors as she was reportedly drugged.
The mother of the girl took her to the gynaecology and medical wards of the hospital where the doctors examined her but reportedly refused to prescribe her any medicines, arguing that it was a medico legal case. It enraged her mother and she called Health Minister Shaukat Yousafzai to complain that the doctors instead of prescribing drugs were referring them from one ward to another.
The minister called Deputy Medical Superintendent Dr Khizer to inform the medical superintendent and call senior gynaecologist to see the girl.According to sources privy to the issue, Dr Khizer reportedly called Prof Dr Gul Rukh but she refused to come to the hospital as it was 10pm then for the sake of one girl. It enraged the minister and he issued suspension orders of medical superintendent Dr Iqbal Afridi, Prof Dr Gul Rukh Qazi and Dr Sumera.
At around 1am when the issue worsened, the minister approached Chief Executive LRH Prof Dr Arshad Javaid to intervene and help the traumatised girl.Before reaching the hospital, Dr Arshad Javaid ordered shifting of the girl to the well-maintained Bolton Block and directed his staff members to call senior doctors to see the patients. The chief executive reportedly called noted psychiatrist Prof Dr Saeed Farooq, head of psychiatry department at the LRH, to reach the hospital. Then he called the medical superintendent Dr Iqbal Afridi and Prof Dr Gul Rukh Qazi and other senior doctors who examined the girl and after investigation found that she was not mishandled. “By 3am on October 13, Prof Dr Saeed Farooq, Assistant Professor Dr Sumera and senior registrar Dr Farnaz in the presence of LRH chief executive and medical superintendent completed examination of the girl and found her condition satisfactory,” a senior doctor told The News.The health minister on Sunday withdrew the suspension order of the three senior doctors and directed the LRH chief executive to probe the issue through a fact- finding committee.
