Health Executive District Officer (EDO) team raided a Public Call Office (PCO) in front of Jinnah Hospital’s emergency ward and seized hospital-marked medicines worth Rs 0.5 million. Anaesthesia, radiology and dialysis medicines were seized from a PCO named Iqbal Medical Store. Jinnah Hospital administration has constituted a four-member inquiry committee to investigate the matter within 72 hours. The team arrested one worker of the medical store, Ahsan Ullah Khan, and handed him over to the hospital’s administration, which not only handed over the culprit to the police but also registered an FIR against him and other unknown people involved. Sources disclosed that Iqbal Medical Store was introduced about two years ago and after some time it was sealed, after which the owner turned the medical store into a PCO. Recently, a truck full of disposable medical items including branulas worth Rs 1 million was caught.
Former Jinnah Hospital medical superintendent Dr Muhammad Hassan hushed up the matter and no inquiry was conducted, said sources. Jinnah Hospital’s four-member inquiry committee includes two senior professors headed by Prof Masood-ul-Rasheed, while other members are Prof Saeed Ahmed from Oncology, Additional Medical Superintendent Dr Saeed Sobhan and Chief Pharmacist Dr Aleem Khan, who will investigate the matter. Sources said that the committee would probe Director Security Col (r) Iftikhar Ahmed Cheema for poor security. Sourced told Pakistan Today that this was the second time over the last few months that some people were found involved in selling hospital’s medicine privately. Jinnah Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Afzal Shaheen told Pakistan Today that he was informed by Health EDO about the medicine theft. He said that the administration had sealed all medical stores in the hospital and will check their invoices and will match them with the record.