A committee of the Specialized Healthcare & Medical Education (SHC&ME) department was constituted to probe death of a woman on the floor of Lahore’s Jinnah Hospital after Punjab’s chief minister took notice of the sad incident.
King Edward Medical University (KEMU) Vice Chancellor (VC) Dr Faisal Masud will work as convener of the committee, while Fatima Jinnah Medical University VC Dr Sardar Fakhar Imam and SHC&ME Additional Secretary (Technical) Dr Salman Shahid will work as members of the committee.
According to details, 60 years old Zohra Bibi of Kasur breathed her last in the corridors of Jinnah Hospital after she was denied treatment in two of Lahore’s major public sector hospitals. Zohra Bibi was suffering from ischemic heart disease and was taken to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology on Sunday but the hospital management refused treatment on the pretext that she must be admitted to Ganga Ram Hospital as she had some kidney problems also.
She was referred to Jinnah Hospital from Ganga Ram in the wee hours of Monday and she remained in the emergency ward of the hospital for three hours before being shifted to the ward of Medical Unit 1.
There were 55 beds in the ward, but one hundred patients, forcing half of the patients to share beds with each other.
Zohra could not get a bed and remained on the floor of the ward unattended, despite the fact that she was suffering from chronic heart and kidney diseases.
As per the terms of reference (TORs) of the inquiry committee constituted by the SHC&ME department, it will be ascertained whether the referral of the patient to Jinnah Hospital was appropriate or not. The committee will also probe why she was not provided with a bed while the clinical management of the patient will also be studied.
Talking to Pakistan Today, health department spokesperson Ikhlaq Khan said that an impartial committee was constituted to probe the matter which will submit its report on Wednesday morning.
“There is immense workload on the doctors as thousands of patients visit government hospitals every day,” Minister for SHC&ME Kh Salman Rafique said while visiting Jinnah Hospital. He was of the view that an impartial committee had been constituted as none of the members of the committee belonged to Jinnah hospital consisted of two respected VCs.
The government is trying hard to increase bed capacity in public sector hospitals, district headquarters (DHQs), and tehsil headquarters (THQs) in order to minimise the workload in teaching hospitals.