Woman gives birth outside hospital emergency after ‘admission denied’

LAHORE
A pregnant woman was forced to give birth to a child in the courtyard of Lady Wellington Hospital, Lahore on Tuesday after she was allegedly denied admission for not having the hospital card.
Reshma, wife of Ghulam Murtaza of Sharaqpur, referred to Lady Wellington Hospital by a local primary health facility was in severe labour pain upon reaching the emergency ward along with her family members. Reportedly, the staff of the hospital allegedly denied admission to the patient for not having reference/history card of check-up at the hospital. The staff in the emergency ward refused to check the patient and asked the family to get a hospital card for examination in the emergency ward.
As the family members rushed to get the hospital card, the pregnant woman delivered the baby in front of the emergency ward and an untrained lady helped her in delivery of the child and her umbilical cord was cut with an ordinary knife. The family members have condemned the apathy and protested against the attitude of the staff towards a patient in a serious condition just before delivery of the child. They alleged negligence of the hospital’s staff that led to baby’s delivery in the open and that too without an expert’s assistance.
However, despite the poor sanitary condition of the courtyard and antagonistic behaviour of the hospital’s staff, both the mother and the newborn are in stable condition and they were later admitted for post-delivery treatment. When The News tried to contact LWH Medical Superintendent Dr Zafar Yousaf on his mobile (0300-8470239), he declined to talk and his personal staff member, who had received the call, asked the scribe to contact the MS on his landline number (042-37641179). But, nobody picked up the phone despite repeated calls on his official landline number. The CM has taken notice of the incident and sought a report from the Punjab Health Department.
On the direction of Adviser on Health Khawaja Salman Rafiq, Secretary Health Jawad Rafique Malik has constituted a committee to probe the incident. The Young Doctors Association (YDA), Pakistan, general-secretary Dr Salman Kazmi condemned the incident and suggested to the government to provide facilities at THQ level and hire doctors on special salaries at small hospitals so that patients were not referred to already-burdened Lady Wellington Hospital, Lahore, leading to such sad incident of delivery outside the hospital.