LAHORE, Oct 21: The government should constitute monitoring teams to observe whether minimum surgical and other treatment standards are being followed by all those national and international voluntary organizations, which have established their hospitals and medical camps in the quake-hit areas.

This was suggested by Prof Muhammad Awais, orthopaedic surgeon at the KEMC/Mayo Hospital, while talking to Dawn on Friday. Prof Awais has returned after establishing two well-equipped operation theatres in Mansehra and Muzaffarabad, which were sponsored by philanthropist Gohar Ejaz; Mian Muhammad Shafi Trust, Lahore; Human Aid, UK; and the Society for Welfare of Orthopaedically Disabled.

He said some 40 major and 60 minor operations were being conducted at both operation theatres daily.

Prof Awais said it was a matter of grave concern that several wrong surgical procedures were being carried out in the affected areas owing to improper planning and lack of resources.

Stating that many voluntary organizations had set up medical camps without proper planning and guidelines, he stressed that the government should create registry to record which voluntary organization had certain specialities and where it could be placed for better outcomes.

He also suggested that the organizations that were projecting their contribution on the basis of caseload must be asked to show their performance in the form of workload. “These organizations are giving head count instead of workload,” he added.