LAHORE - Various teaching hospitals in Punjab are alarmingly short of highly qualified radiologists to run these hospitals most sensitive departments - Radiology - due to what the sources have described as a conspiracy hatched by the diploma-holder in connivance with the bureaucracy in the Punjab Health Department. Diagnostic department of any hospital is considered among the most vital in any medical set up because it is the one, which facilitates surgeons, physicians and gynaecologists to make decisions regarding patients treatment and management. The experts believe that the most advanced technologies, CT scanner and MRI, are blessing for people, as the patients injured in traffic accidents, especially with head injuries, need these tests on urgent basis. Other major uses of these equipments are diagnosis of cancers anywhere in the body and in patients with brain strokes. The FCPS qualified radiologists can only issue comments upon the reports of the said modern diagnostic equipments. As such, with the passage of time the importance of radio diagnostic procedures is increasing manifold in medical centres. However, there is only one FCPS qualified radiologist in Punjab who is posted as head of the Radiology Department at Lahore General Hospital while the others having same qualification have either been harshly victimised by the radiologists having Diploma in Medical Radio Diagnosis (DMRD) or have gone abroad on attractive packages in sheer disappointment. The Punjab Health Departments top officials were using delaying tactics in the matters pertaining to promotion of the FCPS radiologists serving the department for 7 years or more. Instead of rewarding them for their higher qualification and services, they have been put under the supervisions of the DMRD radiologists who are teasing them using unethical approach. The DMRD holder radiologists having key posts in teaching hospitals are unable to issue comments on the medical investigations like MRI, Angiography and CT Scan, as these are the most advanced technologies and were not the part of their syllabus or exams they had passed around 10 years back, it has been reliably learnt. These days, the consultants could not imagine to operate upon or to start treatment of the patients without consulting the medical reports of these diagnostic equipments. However, these radiologists are issuing most of the medical investigations of the patients. The consultants of other departments have no option other than to rely upon the investigations of the said low profile radiologists. Resultantly, complaints regarding poor treatment on the basis of medical investigations are soaring in the teaching hospitals. In one such example of chronic mistakes and poor performance of the diploma-holder radiologists, the Radiology Department of the Jinnah Hospital issued a wrong medical report regarding the knees MRI of the institutes own head - Principal Allama Iqbal Medical College/Jinnah Hospital Professor Javed Akram. According to details, Dr Javed complained about a pain in his knee. The radiologist of the department detected tumour and advised him to get emergency treatment from a senior doctor on the basis of the MRI reports. On the principals request, his MRI investigations were again performed in the same department. This time round a FCPS qualified radiologist examined the report who detected no tumour in his knee. The sources say all the top posts in radiology departments of all teaching hospitals are lying vacant for the last several years except one health institute. A diploma-holder radiologist, Professor Dr Safdar Malik, is heading the Radiology Department of the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, known for influx of a large number of gyne patients. Interestingly, he is also holding another important post as the Chairman Punjab Health Departments purchase committee meant for the purchasing all sensitive and other diagnostic equipments for all the health institutes in Punjab. The former head of the Radiology Department Jinnah Hospital Lahore Prof Nasir Zaidi was also having same qualification of DMRD and had been running the department for several years as its head. The Board of Management of the Jinnah Hospital, however, repatriated him placing him at the disposal of the Punjab Health Department on the charges of chronic absence from duty.FCPS qualified senior radiologist associate professor Dr Amer Nadeem, with 11-year teaching experience, was not granted promotion due to departments dual policy. Similarly, an Associate Professor Khawaja Khursheed Ahmad, also a diploma-holder, is heading Mayo Hospitals Radiology Department. The said post is lying vacant for the last several years. Another DMRD, Associate Professor Dr Qamar Sardar has been posted as Head of the Radiology Department of the Services Hospital, while at the Childrens Hospital Dr Farooq Rasool is managing the affairs. But a FCPS qualified associate professor, Dr Ghulam Rasool, is working under him.