HYDERABAD, April 17 Sindh Secretary of Health Mohammad Hussain Syed suspended during a surprise visit to the Liaquat University Hospital on Friday RMO Dr Naeem Zia, drug store in-charge Dr Anwar Palari and another store official over lack of sanitation and patients' complaints about unavailability of drugs.

He expressed dissatisfaction over performance of the hospital management after paying a visit to departments of casualty, gynaecology, surgical, orthopaedic, paediatrics and drug store.

He enquired the patients' attendants about facilities they were receiving at the hospital and they complained about unavailability of medicines.

The patients complained showed his receipts to prove that they were buying drugs from medical stores outside the hospital because the hospital did not provide them medicines.

The secretary expressed displeasure when he found that bed-sheets were not changed in the casualty department to which the medical superintendent said that the heirs of a deceased had taken away the sheet in the particular case.

He ordered suspension of RMO Dr Naeem Zia when he found used syringes in a ward and dismissed the RMO's explanation that they could not be reused because they were garbage.

The secretary was unconvinced by the explanation and said that he tried to misguide him. The syringes should be cut under a protocol to avoid chances of reuse, he stressed.

He voiced surprise at finding unstamped drugs in the store and garbage lying outside it and ordered suspension of drug in-charge Dr. Anwar Palari and another official, Nazar Rajpar.

He met chairperson of the department of paediatrics Prof Dr Salma Sheikh, who complained about lack of trained staff and nurses.

The secretary also checked hospital registers for attendance and also examined it.

He told journalists after the visit that he had asked the hospital MS to improve his performance as the health department was spending huge amount on providing facilities to the patients.

He said that unstamped drugs were kept in the hospital's drug store and patients told him that they had bought medicines from the stores outside the hospital because they were not provided drugs by the administration.

The secretary visited the hospital under special directives of the chief minister and Sindh minister for health, according to an official handout.