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SC judge’s family latest victim of private hospital’s criminal negligence

By Waseem Abbasi
May 19, 2018

ISLAMABAD: While the public hospitals have largely failed to provide quality healthcare to masses, unregulated and expensive private hospitals are playing havoc with the lives of patients and such is the power of the medical mafia that even the families of Supreme Court judges are not immune to their criminal negligence.

According to well placed sources, an application has been submitted to the Registrar Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PMDC) by the family of a serving Supreme Court judge detailing how the daughter of an SC Justice -a young medical student- became permanently disabled owing to criminal professional negligence of “senior” doctors and staff of Islamabad’s most well-known private hospital Shifa International Hospital.

However, weeks after the complaint was filed neither the PMDC-the regulatory body of medical practitioner- nor the private hospital has taken any specific action against those responsible for this gross misconduct. The complaint also mentioned other cases, some of them in court of law, against the hospital involving unnecessary use of ventilators on exorbitant price, retention of dead bodies till clearance of all dues and case and criminal medical negligence.

Even the PMDC Registrar Dr Waseem Hashmi told The News that the professional physician’s body receives a large number of complaints about this and other private hospitals in Islamabad every month.

When contacted by The News, Federal Minister for National Health Services Regulation and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar admitted that there is currently no mechanism to regulate the private hospitals but she hopes that this will change when a new law is enacted.

She said the Islamabad Healthcare Regulation Bill has been just passed by the National Assembly and she is trying hard to convince Senate to pass it within this month. The legislation will enable the government to regulate and monitor all clinics, hospitals and laboratories, both private and public. It will also covers certification, quality assurance, establishment of registration board, licensing, inspections, elimination of quackery, and redressal of grievance.

Meanwhile, The News has learnt reliably that Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has also started a probe into the complaints against the hospital.

According to the application, on 4th September 2017, the 22-year-old daughter of the SC justice was airlifted from a remote area to Shifa International Hospital for the hepatic injury aftera traffic accident. Three weeks later the parents were shocked to hear from the senior doctor that the girl’s leg will be amputated owing to a hospital acquired bug called “Necrotizing Faciitis”.

“Without any signs of regret on their face, the team of senior doctors told the parents that they had left with no option but to amputate the leg above the knee joint. The parents were asked to choose the limb or the life of the patient.”

The application mentioned that on the second of her arrival at the hospital she was taken to operation theatre for Laparatomy. A senior doctor removed packs of the liver “but the most unprofessional and criminal act done by him was that he did not even touch the two small lacerated wounds near the knee joints in spite of the fact that patient was under General Anesthesia,” says the application, adding that the doctor at a later stage confessed that such simple wounds are treated by general surgeons.

However, two days later a plastic surgeon, who is called “unskilled” and “unprofessional” in the application conducted another surgery under general anesthesia but instead of debriding and cleaning the wounds in one go went for partial debridement and this practice went on for three weeks till 25th September 2017. During the period the girl went through 11 surgeries. “Simple wounds which were curable and treatable by a general surgeon of a tehsil hospital but they because of their negligence and professional incompetence turned these two simple wounds into a horrible condition” the application said.

The patient was later shifted to another hospital when skin grafting was made and her leg was saved from amputation but she received permanent disability due to dropped foot because of nerve damage at Shifa International Hospital.

During the surgeries at Shifa hospital, her neurovascular bundle was opened because of extensive detriments and that was so painful that she was given narcotic drugs as epidural injections.

The lack of coordination between doctors was at such level that she was kept under sedation because of severe pain for about two days but no one took care of her diet of intake and only when the parents reminded them they sated Aminovel drip.

The application also mentioned a case during the stay of girl at hospital where another patient was made to go for Rs4.5 million liver-transplant despite the fact that the patient was not fit for the extensive surgery.

The hospital received an advance sum of Rs4.5 million from the patient for 21 day package of liver-transplant. The main surgeon left for Haj after surgery but the patient died after five days of surgery. However the bereaved family was refused death certificate for yet another claim of Rs80,000.

When the relative of the deceased learned about the daughter of justice admitted in the hospital, they approached the family and on their intervention the hospital refunded the entire amount. In a reply to the Human Rights Cell of the Supreme Court one of the directors of the hospital claimed that the refund was on humanitarian ground.

But the application by the family of the justice says there is hardly any other example of humanity shown by the hospital without any intervention by the Supreme Court. “They don’t know the meaning of word humanity and professional ethics,” the application reads.

The application also noted that “most shameful act on the hospital’s part during the stay of the girl was delaying her surgery for seven hours just to make sure the cheque of Rs0.5 million they received is en-cashed in the bank first. The family said they could have provided cash amount had the hospital administration told them about their “encashment concerns”.

The application mentioned that the hospital acquired huge chunk of land from CDA on lowest price of Rs100/per Sq yard with the promise to provide quality health to poor and middle class but those classes can’t even imagine going to this facility now. The issue is being taken up with CDA separately.

The applicant requested PMDC to take drastic action against doctors and CEO of the hospital involved in gross negligence regarding treatment of the girl so that other parents should not suffer at their hands in future.

While contacted by The News, a spokesman of Shifa International Hospital Asmatullah Qureshi said the hospital will only respond to an official notice issued by PMDC.

“We treat hundreds of patients successfully here with our 550-bed facility. It is not true that our services are poor,” he said. When asked about standard of hygiene and hospital acquired bugs in the facility, he said the management tries its best to maintain cleanliness but sometimes relatives of the patients bring germs in the hospital without listening to the directions issued by doctors and staff.

When asked specifically about the negligence of doctors and not treating the small minor wound on the first day which complicated the injury resulting in permanent disability of the patient, he said the technical details of the procedure will be submitted to PMDC as media and general public does not know technicalities of the medical procedures. However, he claimed the doctors at the hospital are professional who take utmost care while discharging their duties.

People complain about the treatment sometimes but they don’t understand the process. He said the doctors would submit their responses to PM about the particular case of daughter of the Supreme Court judge. He said the administration will also probe any specific case of negligence as per directions of PMDC.

On the issue of demanding extra money from relative of dead patient who underwent liver-transplant worth Rs4.5 million, the spokesman said the issue is resolved with the family already. “When the concerned family is happy with resolution of the issue, it should be considered close,” he said.

To a question about seven hour delay in operation of the girl to ensure encashment of the cheque delivered by parents, he said he was not sure the delay was caused for only this reason. “The doctors could delay the procedure considering various factors in the best interest of patient.”

The PMDC Registrar Waseem Hashmi told The News that the authority usually processes dozens of complaints daily through its disciplinary committee. When asked why incidents of criminal negligence of doctors are still rampant if the Council is taken action on complaints, he said: “Our disciplinary committee takes strict action on complaints but unfortunately sometime people do not lodge complaints to us.”

Without naming Shifa International, the registrar said the authority in past have imposed fines and taken action against private hospitals. The registrar promised to take action “soon” on the above mentioned complaint by the family of the Supreme Court judge. It is pertinent to mention that this is not the only hospital in Islamabad which is minting money from patients without justification.

Another famous hospital in F-10 sector had issued official notice to doctors to increase ER Admissions promising to pay lucrative incentive package to the doctors who will admit maximum number of patients on a given day. The notification went viral on social media but no action was taken against the hospital for unethical practice.