PESHAWAR, April 6: Patients are being denied medicines in operation theatres at several of the city's hospitals because of unethical practices of some surgeons and their subordinate staff, patients' relatives and doctors have alleged.
"An inquiry is being conducted against a senior surgeon at one of the public-sector hospitals in Peshawar for his alleged involvement unscrupulous practices," an official said.
He said that the same surgeon used to send patients to a designated medical store for purchasing drugs, where the storekeeper over-charged them, adding that more than half of the drugs, meant to be used during surgical operations, were being stolen by the operation theatres' staff.
"The doctor refuses drugs purchased from stores other than the designated one," said a person, whose brother had undergone an operation. As the patients' relatives aren't allowed to enter the operation theatres, the staff withheld the unconsumed drugs, said the official. These drugs were then re-sold to the store-keeper by the hospital staff.
All patients on the operation theatre list are prescribed a number of drugs and disposable surgical items, a relative of a patient said. Patients' relatives purchased all the drugs, most of them, not knowing that these won't be used for the operations of their near and dear ones, he added.
"I brought three implants for Rs6,000 from the local market, which were supposed to be used in my father's hip joint operation, but later the X-ray showed that only one implant had been used, while two had been withheld by the surgeon or his staff," said a dispenser, whose father underwent surgery at the orthopaedic ward of one of the city's hospitals.
He said that he had later come to know that the same surgeon owned a drug store and he forced the patients to buy drugs from there. Unused drugs were re-sold by the same outlet, he added. He said that he had lodged a complaint with the hospital's authorities but no action was taken.
An eye surgeon at an hospital sent the patients to medical store owned by his brother, from where they purchased drugs, including costly lenses, a doctor revealed. He said that lenses, which were available at only Rs1,500 in the open markets, were being sold to the patients at Rs4,000 and even more.
"In operation theatres, patients are anaesthetised and their relatives' are not allowed to accompany them. Surgeons and their staff are free to misappropriate the drugs," said a staff nurse, who regretted that even the poor patients were not spared.
The staff nurse said that her sister was prescribed drugs prior to her gynae operation, adding that she knew that her sister's operation didn't required those drugs.
"If I refused to bring all the drugs, my sister would have been dropped from the operation list and we would have to wait for one more week at the ward," said she. She said that she had to buy drugs worth Rs3,000.
