ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services on Monday questioned National Institute of Health’s (NIH) executive director for not submitting a reply regarding the issue of an inaccurate report which said Senator Khalida Parveen had hepatitis.

Members were even more annoyed when NIH Executive Director Dr Mukhtar Ahmed smiled and said one or two reports out of 300 can be inaccurate.

During its last meeting, Senator Parveen had told the committee a test she had done at the NIH had declared her positive for hepatitis and a report from a private laboratory had come back negative. The committee had directed the NIH ED to submit a report on the next meeting.

Dr Ahmed did not submit a report in the meeting on Monday and only said that a committee had been formed for looking into the matter and a report will be finalised within a week which will be furnished in the next meeting.

Parliamentarians were annoyed with NIH head for not furnishing a report on the matter

Senator Mian Ateeq Sheikh said Dr Ahmed had not bothered to do his job and was smiling.

“It is wrong that you did not do your job and neither did your institution. It is a simple matter, don’t complicate it,’ he said.

Senator Parveen asked what would happen if someone wrongly diagnosed with hepatitis started using medicines for treating the illness.

Dr Ahmed said every report is not wrong but the chances of error should also not be overlooked.

Cleaning staff conducting post-mortems

During a discussion on the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), Senator Ateeq showed a picture of a post-mortem and claimed that post-mortems are conducted by sweepers in Sheikhupura.

The discussion then veered towards this issue, which was brought up during a presentation being made by a PMDC representative who was saying that a number of illegal clinics were sealed and that action was taken against 100 doctors who were involved in illegal activities.

“In the past, it was just the living who suffered at the hands of hospital staff, now even the dead are made to suffer. We will all die one day and this can happen to us as well,” Senator Ateeq said.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2017