MULTAN’S Nishtar Hospital is no stranger to scandal and controversy. News reports from the past four years alone speak about corrupt and inept medical superintendents; fake doctors; internal reports about glaring malpractices; a fatal Covid-19 breakout that affected dozens of doctors and nurses due to negligence and poor quarantine measures; as well as the suspected murder of a foreigner in one of its hostels. The macabre discovery of putrefied cadavers on the roof of one of the hospital’s buildings, however, is shocking even by the hospital’s own standards. Visuals of bodies left to decompose in the sun have spread quickly via social media over the last few days and triggered an outpouring of shock, disgust and anger. Citizens are asking how a major public hospital could be allowed to treat the dead so disrespectfully. However, preliminary investigations have since uncovered that the incident has more to do with the violation of medical ethics and SOPs rather than anything more nefarious.

It is a fact that all teaching hospitals and medical universities need cadavers to teach medical students about the intricacies of the human anatomy. Nishtar Hospital authorities have tried to explain that the manner in which the bodies were stored was nothing out of the ordinary and in line with their usual practices. However, medical ethics dictate that the human body should be treated with dignity and shown basic respect even in death. A deceased person may become inanimate, but cannot be treated as an object. It appears from the incident that the hospital did not take enough care to store the bodies in a dignified manner. A large part of the public outrage over this incident stems from the deeply ingrained cultural and spiritual teachings about the respectful treatment of a deceased’s body. The hospital would do well to acknowledge its lapse, address public concerns and make better arrangements in the future. Lastly, it needs to be highlighted that Pakistan desperately needs strict standards and benchmarks for medical practices in public health facilities and a means to ensure that they are followed. This particular incident may have to do with the way the dead are treated, but conditions for living and breathing patients are not much better. The lack of concern for human well-being is evident in the poor sanitary conditions and casual misconduct that form the hallmark of most public hospitals in the country.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2022