26 October 2004	Tuesday	11 Ramazan 1425

KARACHI, Oct 25: Surgeries at one of its two operation theatres of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital's Department of Ear, Nose, and Throat have been stopped for the last six months due to non- functioning of major and minor equipment , including anaesthesia machine, BP and ECG monitors.

According to a hospital official, the anaesthesia machine in one of the two operation theatres is out of order for the last six months. He said that majority of monitors in the room, which were used for blood pressure, pulse rate and ECG, were also non- functional.

He further said: "Realizing the situation, anaesthesiologists have refused to undertake any surgery, as it will pose a great risk to the life of patients. The other operation theatre is also working partially owing to the poor condition of equipment and machines.

Patients undergoing surgeries there are not safe, as surgeries at that operation theatre could be stopped anytime due to any possible fault in machines," he added.

He suggested unofficial estimates for repairing all equipment of the closed operation around Rs30,000 and said that the repair would take maximum one week. "Usually 40 to 50 surgeries were done before the closure of the operation theatre," he added.

"It is a tertiary care hospital, where all types of ENT surgeries are done. Due to non-functioning of one of the two operation theatres, patients' burden has increased manifolds on the other operation theatre," he said. If a patient was admitted for surgery on Monday, his turn would come after two weeks, he added saying that sometimes patient argue with officials.

The official said that the ENT department had written to the hospital administration for many times about the prevailing situation, but, no action had been taken so far.-PPI