LAHORE: The Institute of Child Health is facing a severe faculty shortage, affecting the performance of the attached Children’s Hospital and inconveniencing patients coming from far flung areas, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The Children’s Hospital is a 700 bedded specialised hospital, which caters to a large number of patients coming from across the province. But due to shortage of senior faculty and specialist doctors patients have to leave the hospital disappointed. The shortage also causes parents to wait in long queues in the emergency and outdoor patients department.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Sumera Bibi, waiting in the emergency ward with her five year-old daughter, said, “It’s been two hours since I am waiting for some doctor to check my child. From its looks, the Children’s Hospital seems to be a state-of-the art hospital, but it’s a sheer disappointment when no doctor is available for two hours. When attendants demand the presence of doctors they further reproach us. My daughter broke her arm and is in severe pain and she needs immediate treatment but no one attended her,” she added.
According to details, 44 seats of assistant professors, 46 senior registrars and eight associate professors were lying vacant in the hospital. The 56 vacant seats of medical officers have been recently filled. A senior doctor, seeking anonymity, said there were only one professor and one senior registrar in the most important pediatrics surgery ward.
“Last year, there were 14 consultants in the ward, but all have gone abroad after they were offered lucrative pay packages, mostly by the Saudi Arabian government,” he said, adding that the shortage had “adverse” effects on the provision of treatment and routine work of doctors. The doctor said the Institute of Child Health-attached institution of the hospital- was actually facing staff shortage, which “in effect” created problems for both the institute and hospital.
Institute of Child Health Dean Dr Tahir Masood was not available for comments despite repeated attempts. Children Hospital Medical Director Dr Ahsan Rathore said the aforementioned posts were advertised but there were not many eligible doctors to fill them. He said that now these posts would be filled by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC), as the health secretary had already forwarded the case.
“Children Hospital specialises in having experts in different fields. It takes time for a doctor to become a specialist. Previous doctors have left and it would take some time to fill the vacant posts through the PPSC. Once the posts are advertised by PPSC, the hospital administration would be able to recruit people even on ad hoc basis,” Rathore concluded.
