KARACHI: A neurosurgery patient at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center died at the hospital Thursday, after the protests at the hospital entered their second day.
This is the third patient to die at the hospital in the past two days. The man named, Mohammad Rizwan, was admitted at the neurosurgery ward number 6 of the hospital yesterday, waiting to be operated upon. But due to the protest at the hospital, his operation was postponed, resulting in his death today.
Earlier, a patient named Abdul Rehman, 30, and Saima, 20, also died as the doctors boycotted the out patients department and the emergency ward.
Since Tuesday, the JPMC doctors’ association is protesting against the hospital administration and demanding the removal of Dr Seemin Jamali and Dr Tasneem Ahsan from their posts.
The protesters are also demanding that the hospital administration must be transferred to the province.
While executive director Tasneem Ahsan was not available for a comment, executive director of emergency ward, Dr Seemin Jamali said the “protests reek of some people forcing their own agenda”.
“They (protesting doctors) have ransacked the department and are harassing us for the past two days. Is this the way to go about it?” Dr Jamali asked.
Some doctors are still sitting outside the director’s office, she said.
Yesterday, two protesting doctors were injured in a scuffle with Rangers personnel.
Moreover, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) while condemning the incident in a press conference yesterday said that since the day the Jinnah Sindh Medical University (JSMU) was announced, “some people are hell bent on causing trouble.”
Apart from that, the hospital administration since its devolvement with the Sindh government has seen a number of protests on its premises as it would rather be with the federal government.
In the midst of calls for protests and violence, the patients admitted at the hospital continue to suffer, while their family members wait for some semblance of normalcy to return to the hospital.
