SARGODHA: Three more newborns have died in the District Headquarters (DHQ) Teaching Hospital, taking the death toll to 22 during last five days.

The chief minister on Sunday sought opinion of the law department about the arrest of Dr Sami, the suspended medical superintendent (MS) of the hospital, and others responsible for the criminal negligence. After the suspension of Dr Sami, the health secretary gave the additional charge of the MS of the hospital to Executive District Officer (health) Dr Najamul Hassan and also sought reports about the facilities in the hospitals of all the districts of Punjab.

The new building of the teaching hospital was recently constructed with the funds of Rs560m but it is not properly equipped with necessary instruments while free medicines were also not available to the patients.

The locals, including traders, criticised the authorities for the present situation and they say that the spending the huge amount is useless if there are no equipment and medicines for patients.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Secretary Naveed Akram Cheema has directed the authorities concerned to ensure oxygen in the hospital through the central supply system by Dec 15. He also constituted 12-member team, including the commissioner, DCO, DPO, parliamentarians, EDO (Health) and MS of DHQ hospital to look after the affairs of hospital and give recommendations to the government for missing facilities and staff vacancies.

Delay

Two major projects of Sargodha, namely the Sargodha Industrial Park and flyover, approved by the government in its previous tenure are in the doldrums.

As per details, Rs10bn are required to complete the project of the industrial park aimed at promoting export of industries and creating jobs but the projected faced a setback when the government did not release the funds for its completion. The flyover project was started four years back but it also could not be completed and had become a permanent source of inconvenience for the public.

Mian Arif Nazeer, president of the District Bar Association Sargodha, claims an inquiry had been launched into the purchase of the railway land against Rs10m instead of taking it on lease.

Published in Dawn, November 24th , 2014