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NAWABSHAH, April 25: Sindh Health Secretary Dr Noshad Shaikh on Tuesday suspended three doctors of the People’s Medical College Hospital for allegedly having left a pair of forceps in the abdomen of a girl operated upon by them.
Talking to reporters at the medical superintendent’s office, Mr Shaikh announced suspension of Assistant Professor Raza Qazi, Dr Tufail Kondhar and Dr Gul Mari, technicians Rustam and Aslam and a nurse, who left the forceps in the abdomen of Akklima, 17, in 2003.
The nurse had been transferred to Punjab for which a letter would be sent to the Punjab government for her suspension.
The secretary said that the action was taken on the directives of the Sindh chief minister and doctors’ service would be terminated after issuing a show-cause notice to them.
He said that such incidents had taken place in Hyderabad and Sukkur and negligence would not be tolerated.
He said that doctors must act carefully and pay full attention to patients.
The secretary met Akklima in surgical unit-II and enquired after her health.
He asked the medical superintendent to shift the patient to a room and provide her extra care.
The forceps was detected last week after an X-ray when the patient felt severe pain.
The patient was admitted to the surgical ward of the PMCH and the surgical instrument was removed after an operation on Saturday.
VACANCIES: More than 4,500 posts of doctors and paramedical staff are lying vacant in the Sindh health department.
This was stated by the Sindh health secretary while talking to reporters at the press club on Tuesday.
He said the health department had transferred the powers at the grass roots level as per the devolution plan.
He said that the doctors and other staff would soon be appointed by the district government on the contract basis and local residents beside the merit would be preferred for jobs.
He said that the board of governors would look after teaching hospitals of Sindh and administrators had taken charge in Karachi and Hyderabad and soon Nawabshah, Sukkur and Larkana would get officials.
He said budget was also transferred to the local level and medicines would be purchased locally.
He said that there were complaints regarding the purchase of medicines but the system would be correct.
He said that according to a report of the WHO, 40 per cent of spurious drugs were being sold in the country while the ratio was much lower in European countries.
He said that an ordinance (Private Hospital Regulatory Authority) would soon be presented in the assembly for approval after which all private hospitals, blood banks and laboratories would be registered.
He said that there were 23 districts in the province but the number of drug inspectors was less and the level of their corruption was much higher.
