PESHAWAR: A health department inspection has detected severe staffing irregularities at the ruralhealth centre in Regi area here, with 36 doctors working against sanctioned positions of 10 and many staff members, especially women doctors, skipping off work.

Additional director-general (health services) Dr Abid Hussain, who carried out the assessment on Jan 28, ordered corrective measures, insisting that the situation is undermining the government`s commitment to improving maternal, newborn and child health services.

He also sought a detailed compliance report from Peshawar`s district health officer within a week.

In a report, Dr Hussain revealed `gross negligence, systemic inefficiencies and chronic absenteeism, are affecting maternal, newborn and child health services and emergency care`s availability.

Besides immediate corrective actions, he also called for long-term policyinterventionstorestorefunctionality and uphold patient care standards at the Regi RHC.

The report, sent to the director-general (health services) and Peshawar DHO, said the January 28 visit at 7pm was meant to assess the operational efficiency, staff presence, and availability of essential healthcare services, particularly in the evening and night shifts.

It uncovered significant deficiencies, especially regarding MNCH services, staffattendance,and the overalloperations of the centre, declaring them unacceptable.

The report also said two male medical officers delivered routine OPD services and examined 14 patients in the evening shift but no minor surgical procedures were carried out at the health centre, showing underutilisation of resources and inefficiencies in service delivery.

It revealed the absence of female medical technician and lady health visitor from duty and found from staff members that those individuals had ahistory fraught with chronic absenteeism, undermining provision of essential healthcare services for women and children.

`The absence of minor surgical procedures in the evening shift renects a lack of confidence of the community in thecentreduring evening and night shifts, which is particularly concerning given that the facility has been officially designated as a 24/7 healthcare provider,` read the report.

It added that the entire evening shift labour room`s staff members were absent and all rooms of the MNCH section were locked.

`During night shift, where a woman medical officer, who is required to be physically present and oversee critical labour room services, has unilaterally decided to perform duties as an on-call consultant in a blatant disregard for her core responsibilities in contrast to the department`s 24/7 MNCH service initiative under which on-call consultancy is not an accepted practice.

The report said such negligence was completely unaccept able and demanded urgent corrective action to restore the integrity and functionality of MNCH services at the facility.

It added that another female medical officer had never reported for duty despite being assigned a critical role and her extremely casual attitude towards her responsibilities exemplified a sheer disregard for professional ethics and accountability.

The report said that the woman doctor in question had also assumed the role of an on-call consultant without any formal assignment or justification.

It added that despite that `self-designation,` the doctor had been found consistently negligent in performing her duty and thus, failing to attend even a single night shift in the labour room.

`This blatant disregard for professional responsibility not only compromises patient care but also sets a concerning precedent for accountability within the department,` it said.

The inspection report also revealed that the dental surgeon and radiologist were absent from duty at the RHC, leading to complete suspension of dental and ultrasonography services.

It added that an X-ray technician was present on duty but the X-ray room was locked.

The report also highlighted the chief laboratory technician`s unauthorised absence from work for several months.