KARACHI: The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) is very much concerned over the incident at the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) in which a two-day old girl died on Thursday due to a fire which broke out in an incubator of the hospital.

Just 10 days back a fire had broken out in the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) and still the surgical facilities are not operational in the hospital, says a PMA statement.

The tragic incident should be investigated properly and if somebody’s negligence is found, they must be punished according to the rules and regulations.

The grandmother of the child constantly cried for about one hour for help but nobody came to save the child, says the statement. The closure of oxygen supply could have saved the child. Since medical staff and people around were not trained to deal with such emergencies, eventually the child died.

PMA believes that people are losing trust in hospitals and are afraid of admitting their patients to medical facilities.

The secretary general PMA (Centre) suggested the following measures to be adopted to avoid these types of incidents in future: All hospitals should start emergency drills to make their staff trained to deal with such incidents. This drill should be done after every three months at all hospitals in Pakistan; regular maintenance of the electrical system. In all old hospitals, the electrical system should be changed; regular maintenance of the medical equipment and machinery for proper functioning; maintenance of plumbing and sewerage of the hospitals; proper maintenance of the elevators at hospitals; the hospital building should be checked and maintained properly on regular basis.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2020