KARACHI, April 27: The administration of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre is summarily evicting the patients of its skin department — ward number 10 — to make way for a quarantine meant for people suspected of having SARS.

Investigations made by Dawn on Sunday showed that adequate alternative arrangements had not been made. Even though skin diseases were often fairly involved, the patients had been told either to go home or shift to ward numbers 5, 6 and 7 which did not have the means necessary to treat skin ailments.

The patients of the ward in question were reluctant to leave because they were sure that their treatment would be affected adversely if they did so. Siddique Ahmed, speaking to Dawn in his ward, said the patients had been told to move out on Saturday.

“But because we feel that our treatment will come to a standstill the moment we complied with the officials’ order, we decided to stay put,” he said. “Now, the officials are threatening to use police to throw us and our belongings out.”

Another patient — Mohammad Sharif — said a few of the admitted people had come from far off places such as Punjab and Azad Kashmir. The two patients said the officials seemed determined to throw them out on Monday.

“If no one intervenes on our behalf, the officials will move in tomorrow to force a compliance. So, please drop in tomorrow if you want to see both us and our belongings being bundled out of here.”

The other eight patients agreed with what Sharif and Siddique were saying. Their names were: Ameer Shad, Farman Ali, Muhammad Jahangir, Kabeer Ahmed, Muhammad Ishaq, Imam Bakhsh, Mrs Zahida and Ms Zuleikha.

The said ward, situated near the building housing the CT Scanner, has four rooms. Each room has three beds for patients. In all, therefore, the ward has 12 beds.

When contacted, the registrar of ward number 10 — Dr Sabina Saeed — acknowledged that her department was being converted into a quarantine for SARS. She said there were ten patients in her ward.

In response to the other questions she remained absolutely tight-lipped. Instead, she asked this reporter to get in touch with the JPMC’s director.

A doctor, who spoke to Dawn on condition of anonymity, stated that in the past as well efforts had been made to shut down the said ward.

“Politics may be involved. It’s a well-known fact that a doctor’s worst enemy is often the other doctor.”

Meanwhile, a skin specialist said the treatment of a person suffering from a skin disease should not be stopped immediately. “Before you do so, you should reduce the medication gradually so that complication don’t develop.”