PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council has suspended the licences of four doctors, including a consultant and three junior doctors of the Lady Reading Hospital, over negligence in the treatment of a boy, who died of appendicitis three years ago.

The doctors have been directed to attend the PMDC’s remedial classes.

The doctors of the Naseerullah Khan Babar Memorial Hospital (NKBMH), Peshawar, also face action in the case.

Medics of another Peshawar hospital also face action over boy’s death

According to the PMDC notification, the licence of assistant professor at the LRH Paeds surgical ward, Dr Ikramuddin, has been suspended for one year and those of Dr Asghar Nawaz, Dr Fayyaz and Dr Jehangir from three to six months.

The suspension will apply to the practice of doctors in both government hospital and private clinics.

The action has been taken on the formal complaint of Gul Hamad Farooqi of Chitral that he had taken his son, Mohammad Farhan, to the NKBMH twice on July 29, 2016, over the complaint of appendicitis, but the doctors treat him properly and sent him home without operation.

The complainant added that he took his son to the LRH next morning and evening but the doctors didn’t attend to him.

He said his son was later operated upon at the Hayatabad Medical Complex but he developed complications due to long delay in treatment, especially rapture of appendix.

The complaint said his son was referred to the ICU but due to the unavailability of bed there, he ended up at the Khyber Teaching Hospital, where he passed away after an hour on Aug 3, 2016.

The PMDC’s notification said the HMC’s administration and surgeons had been exonerated from the charges of mistreatment of the boy.

An official said the PMDC Council would decide about the NKBMH doctors facing negligence charge in the meeting scheduled to take place on Aug 24.

The notification said the former LRH managing director and the current head of Paeds surgery department would be issued warnings over poor administration.

The complaint routed application through the chief secretary to the PMDC, which heard him and the doctors concerned.

A PMDC official said the LRH had begun implementing its directives, while registration of complaints against doctors and medical institutions would be encouraged to streamline matters relating to medical education and clinical practice.

He said the PMDC had been pursuing cases pertaining to complaints and has cleared a backlog of 150 disciplinary cases pending since 2012.

The official also said a ‘holistic 360 degree’ appraisal or inspection and evaluation of 165 private and public sector medical and dental schools had been carried out.

He said in the past, medical colleges were recognised without the fulfillment of requirements.

The official said the council had begun to regulate private medical practice and benefit patients.

He said the PMDC had taken up all public complaints against doctors during the last five months and that action against negligence would improve patient care in hospitals and clinics.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2019