LAHORE: In the light of the findings of high-profile investigations into the ‘expired cardiac stent scam’, 38 out of 44 officials (suspects) of the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), Lahore, including professors, assistant professors, registrars, pharmacists, nurses and technicians have been handed down major and minor penalties.

The penalties include removal from service, censure, withholding of increment and pension.

Action was proposed against these officials when the available record/documents confirmed the allegations of negligence and professional incompetence during insertion of stents to patients, storage, dispensing, and replacement of stents.

Of the total 44 officials, six were professors, including the then Executive Director (ED) of the PIC, the present medical superintendent (MS), 13 serving assistant professors, two pharmacists, 19 charge nurses and two junior technicians.

One out of six professors, Prof Tahir Naveed, has been exonerated of the charges, while four out of 19 charge nurses were on Ex-Pakistan leave.

The inquiry officer has proposed to the government to re-initiate disciplinary proceedings against these nurses, whenever they rejoin the investigations.

The scam had surfaced in 2021 when expired stents were allegedly inserted into several cardiac patients. Later, the matter was taken to the Lahore High Court.

On the LHC orders, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had also launched investigations, arresting several doctors and other staff members of the PIC.

Later, the Punjab government had appointed Muhammad Ahsan Waheed, then secretary /chairman of the Provincial Transport Authority (presently posted as secretary archives & libraries wing) as inquiry officer under Section 1(4) (iii) and Section 3 of the Act ibid vide on Nov 24, 2022.

Recently, Mr Waheed completed the inquiry and sent a report to the Punjab government, recommending initiation of disciplinary proceedings against the guilty officers under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability (PEEDA) Act.

“Fortunately, so far, no death due to implantation of expired stents has been brought on record”, reads the findings of the inquiry report. (A copy of the inquiry report’s findings also available with Dawn).

The inquiry officer has recommended the penalty of withholding of 15 percent pension, for a period of two years, for the then ED of the PIC, Prof Saqib Shafi Sheikh, under Section 4(c) (i) of the PEEDA Act, 2006.

The report says the accused officer failed to maintain the highest standards of set discipline and professional ethics; however, no mala fide intention and financial conflict of interest and loss of human lives has been attributed to him.

“The record/documents presented before the investigation officer showed negligence and professional incompetency of the accused”, reads the report.

It mentions that as head of the institute, it had been brought into his (Prof Shafi’s) notice that some stents are likely to expire. “It was in his knowledge that expired stents were lying in the Cath Lab/store, but he did not take necessary measures to ensure that expired stents are not implanted to the patients”, observes the inquiry officer.

Mr Waheed has recommended minor penalty of censure for four other professors of cardiology, including Dr Ahmad Nauman, Dr Shahid Hameed, Dr Abdul Wajid Khan and Dr Sajjad Ahmad, saying the accused officers had failed to maintain the highest standards of set discipline and professional ethics. However, the inquiry officer says that no mala fide intention and financial conflict of interest and loss of human lives had been attributed to them.

He has recommended a similar minor penalty of censure for the assistant professors, including Dr Aamir Hussain Bandesha, Dr Abubakar Mirza, Dr Ahmad Masood Akbar, Dr Ammar Rasheed, Dr Anjum Rana, Dr Atif Imran, Dr Hamid Khalil, Dr Imran Abid, Dr Imtiaz Ahmad, Dr Khurram Shahzad, Dr Masood Ali Akbar, Dr Naveed Ahmad Sheikh, Dr Rizwan Ahmad Yaqoob and Dr Shahid Iqbal.

The inquiry officer has recommended major penalty of forfeiture of past service for a period of five years under Section 4(b)(iii) of the PEEDA, ACT 2006 for a pharmacist, Mohammad Yousuf. Giving the reason, Mr Waheed says the Policy Manual of Management of Medication of PIC at Standard-9 Indicator-60 clearly mentions that expiry date must be checked on monthly basis.

“The chief pharmacist must inspect the medicines in relevant storage areas and intimation to suppliers must be issued about near-expiry products six months before the expiry date”, reads the report.

Moreover, it says, the products which are going to expire within one month period should have been pulled off the shelves and stored after labeling in a separate area as per MSDS Reference Manual 2013. The expiry dates must be checked and documented before dispensing, according to the inquiry officer.

“The accused was required to deploy his team in the sub-store and if he had done that, the incident of issuance of expired stents by the pharmacy technician could have been avoided’, reads the report.

So, the charges leveled against Muhammad Yousaf, the then Chief Pharmacist (BS-17), PIC, Lahore, stand proved attributable to inefficiency, professional incompetence, laxity and negligence, it says.

The inquiry officer also imposed penalty of withholding of one increment for a period of two years on a female pharmacist, Samrana Ijaz, almost on the same allegations which were proved against the then chief pharmacist.

For the charge nurses, he proposed withholding of one increment on charge of not maintaining record.

Meanwhile, the major penalty of removal from service has been recommended for two junior technicians, Sajjad Ali and Ijaz Badar, for not maintaining record being the custodian of the cardiac stents at the storage rooms.

The health authorities have issued show cause notices to all the penalised officials, giving them another opportunity to submit their respective ‘additional defence’ in writing.

For the purpose, the Punjab caretaker chief minister has appointed Punjab agriculture department secretary (BS-21) retired Flt Lt Iftikhar Ali Sahoo (BS-21) as hearing officer.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2023