LAHORE: An elderly patient allegedly died of delayed attention by doctors at the Lahore General Hospital, who later attempted to cover up their negligence by starting the “treatment” when he had already expired.

The incident reflects the pathetic healthcare standards at the major public sector hospitals in Lahore where such episodes continue to surface since the caretaker government launched a mega scheme of upgrade of the emergency wards of the teaching institutes.

The patient, Khushi Mohammad (82), was shifted to the LGH’s poorly managed temporary emergency ward where two, and in some cases even three, patients were put on one bed due to mismanagement. The temporary emergency is functioning to handle critical patients because of the ongoing renovation work in the multi-storey emergency block of the LGH.

The deceased patient’s son, Sheikh Rashid, told Dawn his father was shifted to the LGH on Tuesday at around 1:30pm after he complained of weakness.

Rashid said no doctor attended the patient for two hours after his admission to the emergency ward.

“My family went to an on-duty doctor, who suggested ECG, saying he could not begin treatment without the report,” Rashid says.

“I went to the ECG section where I was told that the machine was not working due to some technical fault for the last many days,” he says, adding that he then returned to the ward but couldn’t find the doctor who had suggested ECG.

Meanwhile, a ward boy suggested Rashid to ask the ECG technician to get the ECG conducted at the female ward. “As my father’s condition was deteriorating, I rushed to find the ECG technician,” Rashid says, adding that he was told that the technician had gone out of the ward for smoking.

He then found the technician and requested him to bring ECG machine from the female ward.

Finally, when the test was conducted some three hours after the admission of his father, he had expired by then, he lamented.

“As I raised hue and cry over the criminal negligence of the medics, a doctor rushed to the bed and pretended as if the patient was still alive,” Rashid said.

The doctor prescribed medicines and went away from the ward, he said, adding that a nurse, who had earlier refused to attend to his father three times despite repeated requests, also reached there and began to inject a drug into the veins of the ‘dead body’ just to calm down and satisfy the attendants.

Meanwhile, the duty doctor returned with some of his fellow medics and announced that the patient has expired.

On Rashid’s written complaint to the administration, the deputy medical superintendent (DMS) concerned ordered a probe into the incident.

In the initial inquiry report, the DMS confirmed a two-hour delay in the treatment of the patient, stating the staff concerned also refused to arrange an ECG machine for him. The patient breathed his last meanwhile, the report found.

The DMS forwarded the report to the LGH medical superintendent to initiate disciplinary action against those responsible for the incident.

Following the complaint, LGH Medical Superintendent Dr Nudrat Sohail has constituted a three-member inquiry committee to probe into the death of the elderly patient.

Associate Professor Dr Ghiasul Hassan, Deputy Chief Nursing Superintendent Shazia Kausar and DMS Dr Javed are the members of the committee which has been directed to submit a report to fix responsibility for the incident.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2024