PHC seeks reply from LRH for shutting cardiovascular surgery ward

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday sought a reply from the Board of Governors (BoG) of the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) over the closure of the cardiovascular surgery ward of the hospital.

A division bench comprising Justice Syed Afsar Shah and Justice Abdul Shakoor restrained the BoG from taking any adverse action against the doctors of the cardiovascular surgery ward till a decision on the case.

The bench issued the restraining order in a writ petition filed by six senior doctors of the ward, including cardiac surgeons Riaz Anwar and Abdul Malik.

During the hearing, Qazi Jawad Ihsanullah, counsel for the petitioners, submitted that petitioners were senior professors of the cardiovascular surgery ward of the LRH and had been in charge of the surgery section of the ward in the hospital for over two decades.

He argued that recently the BOG of the LRH Medical Teaching Institution through a notification closed the cardiovascular surgery ward with the observation that the rate of mortality of the heart patients had increased.

The lawyer submitted that the death rate was increased in the ward due to lack of facilities and equipment needed for the heart patients and the faculty members had time and again sought those facilities.

He said instead of providing the required facilities and equipment to the ward, the authorities launched conspiracies against the senior most doctors of the ward and defamed them for the hike in the fatalities.

The counsel said the hospital management first on February 4 temporarily stopped surgeries at the ward. Despite lack of facilities, the faculty members conducted operations but the ward was permanently stopped by the management.

He submitted that LRH was the only government-run hospital of the province where cardiovascular surgeries were being carried out. He said the poor heart patients had been deprived of the treatment after the closure of the ward.

The counsel said the hospital management had reduced surgeries time to three hours, while normally five to seven-hour time was needed for cardiovascular surgery.

He said there were only two beds in the operation theatre and the doctors had to operate up to 30 operations, which was not possible.

The lawyer pointed out that hospital management wanted an international standard in the hospital but government not providing international standard facilities for cardiovascular surgeries.

He said that the petitioners had also asked for a forensic audit of the matter, while the management was avoiding the demand.