SAHIWAL, May 23: A young man died in the DHQ Hospital on Monday because of the alleged negligence of the medical officer. Reports said Shahzad Bhatti, 18, was brought to the hospital unconscious. The medical officer and the staff on duty were asleep.

When the doctor was awakened, he refused to attend the patient initially and later told the relatives of the patient that no life-saving drugs were available at the hospital. During this period the patient died.

Later, the relatives blocked traffic by putting the body on the Noorshah-Faisalabad Road. The district administration restored the traffic after about two hours.

Meanwhile, the district coordination officer has constituted a probe committee.

The shortage of medicines in the hospital, it is alleged, has already claimed five lives during the last few weeks.

Murtaza (28) of Chak 98/9-L and Noor Mohammad (80) of Harappa died of meningitis last Wednesday, while Zohra, Maryyam and Qasim of jaundice a few days ago.

The hospital has three X-ray machines, but the one installed at the emergency ward has no film while the other two, installed in 1964, are out of order.