Unrest among LRH medical consultants over duty roster.

Byline: Ashfaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR -- The medical consultants of Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, have expressed reservations about the duty roster issued by the administration according to which one specialist will perform 100 hours per week duty at its Covid-19 Complex.

According to them, the new rota has created unrest among doctors, who have informed the LRH dean in a letter that they are mentally and physically exhausted and cannot contribute to this rota and want to continue old rota, which has worked well for almost six weeks.

The letter said it had become clear that with the current state of affairs, the doctors were going to either infect themselves or die of the virus trying to save others and achieving the 'impossible bar of excellence built on misconception and faulty system'.

It added that some patient would die due to unavailability of clinical care by the consultant again mainly due to the faulty system and operating procedures.

The consultants said the LRH administration had formulated the new duty rota for Covid-19 patients excluding all faculties and assigning the task of Covid-19 patient care only to the medicine department.

Each of them will work 100 hours a week at Covid-19 Complex

They expressed astonishment at the 'abrupt replacement of tested model' without taking into account their suggestions

According to new rota, the medical faculty alone will bear the burden of coronavirus patients which will expose them to a deadly disease with tremendous mental and physical strain in the absence of any help from any other specialty in contrast to the worldwide approach of merging different specialities, including surgical for Covid-19 care.

The consultants said in the letter that in the midst of crisis, opting for a total alien untested model will play havoc with the doctors apart from adversely affecting patient care.

They reminded the administration of its past decisions made without their input and said they had cooperated to improvise to make it work but strongly warned against the enforcement of the new rota for the sake of patient care and safety of doctors.

The consultants said the initial roster made towards the end of April included the internal medicine, allied medical speciality consultants, faculties of paediatrics, ENT, psychiatry...