GUJAR KHAN: The primary and secondary health department has ordered proceedings under the Punjab Employees Efficiency and Discipline Act (PEEDA) 2006 against six officials of the tehsil headquarters (THQ) hospital, Gujar Khan.

They officials were earlier found guilty of inefficiency, negligence and misconduct during a probe conducted by a committee headed by the chief executive officer of the District Health Authority Rawalpindi.

Sources said special secretary primary and secondary health department Mohammad Iqbal ordered a regular inquiry under PEEDA against the medical superintendent (MS), two pharmacists, emergency director, charge nurse and a pharmacy technician found guilty of exhibiting negligence and misconduct while refusing availability of a life-saving injection to a patient under cardiac stress despite availability of the injection in the indoor pharmacy of the government health facility.

The inquiry report stated that the MS of the hospital was unaware of the availability of essential lifesaving Heparin injection in the indoor pharmacy of the hospital. Furthermore, when the attendant of the patient informed him about the unavailability of the injection he failed to manage the issue.

The director emergency was responsible for managing affairs of emergency and checking the register, supply and availability of lifesaving medicines in the emergency. However, he failed to fulfil his responsibilities.

The pharmacist/pharmacy manager and the pharmacist have been accused of failing to ensure the availability of medicines in the pharmacy store. The junior pharmacy technician misguided the attendant that vial of Heparin injection was empty.

The charge nurse was found guilty of tampering with the name of the patient in the emergency register. She accepted her misconduct before the probe committee, and was subsequently found guilty of inefficiency and misconduct.

The dispenser has been accused of ‘misguiding the attendant that the vial of Heparin injection was empty against the fact that half of the dose of injection was available and could be administered to the patient till the availability of the full dose’. He was also found guilty of “felonious negligence, inefficiency and misconduct.”

It is pertinent to mention that the health department of Punjab has adopted a Medicine Inventory Management System (MIMS) in all hospitals through which the concerned authorities remain aware of the availability status of medicines, the sources said.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2024