LAHORE: The Shaikh Zayed Hospital, which has long been facing a dearth of senior faculty, is facing another crisis, as promotion cases of many senior medics are stuck in of ficial files.

The file for promotion of 10 senior doctors of the institute from Basic Pay Scale (BPS)19 to BPS-20 is pending approval at the chief secretary office for several months, a senior of ficial told Dawn.

He said these medics were suffering due to `bureaucratic hurdles` as no departmental promotion committee (DPC) had met since the institute was handed over to Punjab by the federal government in 2012.

Some of the doctors have been awaiting promotion since 2009. The promotion cases of 10 senior medics had been recommended to the prime minister by the cabinet division when the institute was still under the federal government. The entire process had been completed and the cases were submitted to the prime minister for signatures, but the institute was transferred to the Punjab government.

And now, the official said, the doctors were suffering again as the Punjab government had delayed the DPC meeting despite the fact that the medics were eligible for promotions. He further said the cases of these 10 senior medics from various disciplines and specialties had been sent to the chief secretary a few months ago to consider in the DPC meeting. The doctors included Dr Abdul Shakoor frompsychiatry, Dr Amber Malik cardiology, Dr Ayesha H Shaikh community medicine, Dr Mona Aziz haematology, Dr Muhammad Aslam paediatrics, Dr Ziaullah and Dr Azeem Taj medicine, Dr Ayaz A Khan community dentistry, Dr Waqar Ahmed nephrology and Dr Hafiz Shahzad Ashraf from kidney transplant surgery.

The faculty crisis aggravated the situation when the institute`s admin linked these promotions to dozens of doctors who were to be promoted from BPS-18 to BPS-19.

Sharing another grave situation, the official said the institute recently conducted interviews of hundreds of candidates and shortlisted 50 to appoint as medical officers.

However, some of the candidates approached the L ahore High Court against the hiring process when the management was about to issue letters to selected candidates.

They were to be posted on the newly constructed second floor of the institute where dozens of wards were in dire need of medics. The matter is yet pending in court, he added.

Shaikh Zayed Hospital Chairman Prof Farid Ahmad Khan defended the institute saying promotion cases of the senior doctors were sent to the health department some months back. The DPC to be headed head by the chief secretary is yet to meet to decide the cases.

He said the promotions would help the institute to overcome faculty shortage.

`We are awaiting promotions of these medics to hold another DPC to promote more medics from BPS-18 to BPS-19,` he added.

A health department spokesman said the matter had been sent to the chief secretary who will form the DPC.