LAHORE, March 1: Pakistan Society of Anaesthesiologists (PSA) president Prof Dr Waseem Ismat Chaudhry has said that the standard of anaesthesia services was dismally low in government hospitals due to unavailability of monitoring equipment for operations.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of the fifth annual conference on “Evidence-based anaesthesia” organized by the Lahore PSA here on Saturday. Punjab Health Minister Dr Tahir Ali Javed was the chief guest on the occasion.

Fatal accidents occurred when muscle relaxants mixed with antibiotics, Prof Chaudhry said and added, the muscle relaxants were sometimes also mistaken as distilled water.

He suggested that the government should make it binding on all manufacturers to make a distinct red mark, line or warning sign on the ampules containing muscle relaxants to avoid such accidents.

Prof Chaudhry said another problem faced by the speciality was unavailability of certain life-saving drugs like Ephedrine, Dantrolene Sodium and Fentanyl.

He also demanded that the number of anaesthesia technicians should be increased up to tehsil level to look after the available equipment in public hospitals.

Speaking on the occasion, the health minister said the government would involve consultants, doctors, paramedics and other medical professionals in improving the basic health care system.

Dr Javed said the government would redress all major problems being faced by doctors.

The minister assured the participants that the demands and recommendations made in the conference would be fulfilled and all out cooperation extended to the society to help the anaesthesiologists continue their sacred life-saving job.

Later, the experts presented their theses on “evidence-based anaesthesia”.