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| March 12, 2003 | Wednesday | Muharram 8, 1424 |
Pims official accuses RGH of violating medical ethics
ISLAMABAD, March 11: The administration of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) is agitated over ‘dumping’ of patients in the hospitals’ emergency ward by other hospitals and health institutions.
The latest incident in this regard occurred on last Monday, when the staff of the Rawalpindi General Hospital (RGH) left a woman patient, suffering from bleeding through nose and mouth, in the ‘Casualty Ward’ of Pims without fulfilling prescribed formalities.
Mahfeela Bibi, 45, belonged to Rawalakot in Azad Kashmir, where she was first taken to the Combined Military Hospital. She was immediately referred to the RGH as the symptoms indicated possibility of the dreaded Crimean-Congo Haemorrhage Fever (CCHF).
However, the RGH administration, instead of providing treatment to the patient, shifted her to Pims on an ambulance, and ‘dumped’ her in the Casualty Ward despite refusal by the doctors on duty to admit the patient.
The Pims staff, left with no option but to take care of the patient, immediately isolated her in the medical ward-II, where she remained till the filling of this report.
The staff on duty in the Medical Ward-II refused to give any information about the patient or her condition. “It is too early to come up with any conclusive diagnosis of the patient,” they said.
The doctor on duty in the ward was not available for her comments, however, the staff nurse told this reporter that blood samples of the patient had been sent for laboratory tests. But, she was not certain as to when the results would be received.
Meanwhile, Pims deputy executive director Dr Asif Mehmood told Dawn that the chances of CCHF seemed ‘improbable’ because the patient was stable, except for bleeding from nose and mouth.
He said the PIMS administration immediately took all the precautionary and preventive measures once the patient became their responsibility.
Dr Mehmood said the blood samples for the CCHF test had also been handed over to the WHO, because that particular test was not conducted in Pakistan.
“It is only a confirmatory test. The basic diagnostics are done through tests conducted locally in addition to the symptomatic assessments.
Evidently, this is not a case of the CCHF because the patient is stable and has no fever, which is the basic indication of the deadly fever,” Dr Mehmood said.
However, he was bitter about the way the patient was abandoned at their casualty ward by the RGH staff.
“This is against the medical ethics. The RGH is an old health institution, having the best qualified specialists in every field. It also has the services of the Rawalpindi Medical College at its disposal, and is well equipped.
Yet, they frequently do such things with us,” Dr Mehmood said.
Meanwhile, doctors, staff and patients at the ward where Mahfeela Bibi is being kept in isolation are in a state of tension over the situation.
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