KARACHI, May 19: The staff members of the Qatar Hospital, expressing concern over the transfer of a senior gynaecologist, said area residents, junior doctors and paramedics would suffer from his absence, so he be reposted at the said hospital. The demand for the reposting of Dr Shershah Syed, who is also secretary general of the Pakistan Medical Association, Karachi, was made at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club by representatives of the Qatar Hospital Bachao Action Committee (QHBAC). It was claimed that residents of Orangi would suffer due to Dr Syed’s transfer from the hospital.

They said that before the posting of Dr Shershah at the Qatar Hospital, medical facilities at the hospital were inadequate, and a large number of cases of obstetric emergencies were referred to tertiary care centres. Many patients died while on their way to the Civil Hospital, JPMC and the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

They said that after his posting, the hospital started to provide 24-hour emergency obstetric care and the number of patients increased to an extent that the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) recognized the hospital for postgraduate training.

They said before, majority of patients used to be referred to other hospitals, but in 2004 over 80,000 patients benefited from the Qatar hospital, with the rise in number of deliveries from 2,000 to over 4,383.

Furthermore, just 10 gynae operations were carried out in 2000 while this number rose to 772 operations in 2004.

In 2000, emergency delivery operations could not be carried out while in 2004 over 1,018 operations were carried out.

In 2004, over 922 seriously complicated delivery cases were carried out which used to be earlier referred to other hospitals.

The QHBAC representatives including Rehana Ahmad, Noureen Waleem, Ayesha Haq, Kaneez Fatima, Nighat Shah and others said that Dr Shershah had been transferred to Civil Hospital where many senior doctors were already working. However, with his transfer from the Qatar Hospital the people of Orangi would suffer greatly.