LAHORE – Indoor patients who were discharged from various hospitals after the doctors’ strike are still vying for re-admission, as doctors are not attending to patients in the outdoor patient departments (OPD), while only severely critical patients are being admitted to emergency wards, Pakistan Today has learnt.
A large number of patients admitted to all major hospitals were asked to go back home owing to the strike by doctors who suspended even the indoor facilities. However, despite the resumption of emergency and OPD services in all hospitals, all major hospital wards give a deserted look.
The situation was worst in Sir Gangaram Hospital where even the emergency ward was not properly working. This has caused a lot of inconvenience to patients, most of whom in critical condition.
The attendant of Naseem Afzal, a gynaecology patient, who was sent back home from Sir Gangaram Hospital, said, “It has been so many days that we have taken our patient back home. She is diabetic and hypertensive and these are the last months of her pregnancy. We have been trying to get her admitted but the staff says that only very critical patients will be allowed admission; only those who are just about to deliver a baby. We do not know what to do or where to go.”
An on-duty doctor, attending gynaecology patients in Sir Gangaram Hospital’s emergency ward said, “Only those are being admitted who are in a very critical condition. We are not referring patients to the wards because there are no doctors to look after patients. A couple of professors cannot run all the wards.”
The Situation is better at Mayo Hospital, where the emergency ward was working, while the OPD was non-operational. A senior nurse at Mayo Hospital said, “Patients are being admitted to the wards after being referred from either the OPD or the emergency. The emergency has started working only recently and patients are being admitted as per their turn. Senior doctors take a round in the wards and attend patients.”
However, Sir Gangaram Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Aijaz said, “We are not running the indoor facility yet and only the OPD and the emergency ward is being run. The wards look deserted because, compared to the available number of beds, the admitted patients are few and are only those who are in a very critical condition.” To a question, he said that all hospitals were following the same policy and the indoor facility was not being run.
