Internews/Peshawar
The administration of Lady Reading Hospital in Lahore has decided to discharge the patients, who are arrested on charges of corruption and admitted to the hospital on health grounds, and send them back to jail on the recommendations of the medical boards, according to sources.
Sources said that those patients were arrested in corruption cases but they were staying at the hospital on different health grounds. “Medical boards have already recommended discharging four of the total nine suspects. The boards have recommended sending them back to jail,” they said.
The remaining patients were being evaluated by various boards consisting senior physicians, surgeons and cardiologists to determine their health conditions and recommend if they should be kept at the hospital or discharged.
Sources said that various medical boards constituted by the hospital’s administration examined three other suspects on Thursday and were likely to furnish their recommendations by Saturday.
“Those admitted with skin problems, backache and chest pain etc will be sent back to prison where jail doctor can manage them,” said a senior consultant and member of one of the medical boards.
The medico-legal ward of LRH was established to serve as in-patients facility for the prisoners, who needed hospitalisation due to serious illness and injuries, but the facility was misused by influential prisoners, who managed to get admitted there, sources said.
The prisoners, admitted at the ward, have been arrested by National Accountability Bureau and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission for misuse of authority and corruption. Unlike jail or NAB’s lockups where they don’t enjoy freedom, the prisoners can receive guests and relatives at the hospital.
The LRH administration came under scathing criticism owing to misuse of the medico-legal ward since its establishment, sources said. During early days of former president retired General Perez Musharraf, the Bolton Block hosted a number of bureaucrats and politicians, arrested for misuse of authority.
“A former bureaucratic was lucky to have air-conditioner and backup generator. One accused in corrupt cases stayed here for one year,” said sources.
According to protocol, the patients were referred by jail doctors for examination to LRH where they were examined and admitted by specialists. Only the specialists were authorised to discharge them.
Sources said that a few years ago, there were 10 prisoner admitted to the ward by the same consultant. “Now it is standard practice that hospital forms medical board and assigns different panels of doctors to review the justification of the admission of these people,” they said.
A former chief justice of Peshawar High Court had issued directives to inform the court about the number of patients at the ward and their history and justification for their admission. The hospital started formation of medical boards to review the condition of patients at medico-legal ward.
”Except two of the arrested persons, who are genuinely ill and require hospitalisation, the others will leave the hospital soon,” sources said. The two prisoners will remain at hospital due to their condition.
“One of them has been advised multiple tests in view of his stomach-related illness and the other, suffering from chronic disease, will be retained at the ward to diagnose and medicate him,” said sources.