Darul Sehat administration wants review of decision to seal hospital

Urging the authorities to reopen the Darul Sehat Hospital (DSH) for the sake of hundreds of patients visiting the facility daily, the DSH administration have said they are complying with all the directives of the Sindh Health Care Commission (SHCC) and the provincial government to improve their health care services.

“We’re equally saddened over the death of nine-month-old Nashwa, and our hearts are with the aggrieved family and relatives,” said Prof Dr Naveed Rashid, Principal, College of Dentistry, Liaquat College of Medicine & Dentistry, while addressing a news conference on Monday.

“The culprits involved in the criminal negligence have been fired and are in police custody. We’re complying with all the directives issued by the SHCC, and in these circumstances there’s no need to seal a tertiary-care teaching hospital like Darul Sehat.”

He said DSH is the only tertiary health care facility for 1.7 million people of Gulistan-e-Jauhar and it is registered with all the relevant authorities and associations as required by the law.

“The hospital has treated millions of patients since its inception, including more than 225,000 patients last year alone,” he said, adding that the DSH-affiliated medical & dental college also offers undergraduate medical and dental teaching programmes duly registered with the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council, the Jinnah Sindh Medical University and the University of Karachi.

“It’s claimed that nursing assistant Moiz and the midwife were untrained, but the fact is they both have the required certification. Nashwa’s death was an unfortunate incident due to criminal negligence.”

He said the DSH administration even approached the best hospitals in Singapore and the Middle East for the girl’s treatment, but unfortunately, she could not survive.

Urging the authorities to review their decision to close down the DSH, he said that sealing such a well-equipped and state-of-the-art tertiary-care hospital is not only unlawful but will also create a fearful environment in the private health care sector. It will also encourage quackery and put the lives of innocent people at risk, he added.

Chronology

Dr Rashid said Nashwa and her twin sister were admitted in the paediatric ward of the DSH on April 6 through emergency, with the complaint of motions and vomiting.

“In the morning of April 7 Nashwa crashed after the injection was wrongly administered to her and so she was immediately transferred to the ICU and put on a ventilator. Her father was given the option to shift her to the Aga Khan University Hospital [AKUH] or the Liaquat National Hospital [LNH] but he preferred to stay at the DSH.”

He said Nashwa’s twin was discharged in the meantime, adding that on April 8 her father asked for a summary to consult the AKUH’s paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) consultants, who were contacted and briefed about the case.

“On April 9 the PICU doctor contacted the father, as the space was available, but Mr Qaiser did not shift the baby as he was satisfied with the treatment at the DSH.” He said that on April 10 Nashwa was extubated, or weaned off the ventilator, and the baby was maintaining saturation with oxygen, while a CT scan of her brain was conducted.

He added the father took a neurological opinion from an LNH paediatric neurologist on April 11. “The baby was maintaining saturation on low oxygen and nasogastric feeding was started on April 12. The baby was shifted to the LNH on April 15.”

He said the DSH reiterates its deepest condolences to Nashwa’s family over her sad demise, adding that the hospital is fully committed to following the SHCC’s recommendations in letter and spirit to minimise the possibility of any such incident in future.

Medical errors

“Although we’re not making it an excuse for any such unfortunate incident, medical errors do occur in even the most developed countries,” said Dr Rashid.

“According to a John Hopkins study, medical errors are the third biggest cause of death in the US, as 250,000 deaths occur a year due to medical errors. However, there’s no instance of sealing a hospital on such errors. Instead, they focus on finding the solutions to rectify mistakes and avoid them in future.”

He said that it will not be prudent to blame an entire institution for the negligence of a few, adding that along with the staff who were involved in the sad incident, a few more staff members — Prof Dr Rizwan Azami (academics director), Dr Rashid Naseem Khan (medical college principal), Waleed ur Rehman (security incharge) and Ahmer Shehzad (admin officer) — were also arrested, but they were neither directly nor indirectly involved.

He said the management of the hospital immediately complied with the SHCC’s orders and they stopped further admissions and closed all the outpatient departments (OPDs). “The SHCC team again visited the hospital on the 24th along with law enforcement authorities and sealed the Medical & Executive Dental OPDs as per the chief minister’s orders.”

Therefore, he added, it is not true that the DSH did not comply with the health care body. “On the recommendation of the SHCC we’ve started reviewing our recruitment policy and we’re re-structuring our existing organogram, while an external expert will be hired to fully train the staff.”

He said the SHCC will be updated on a regular basis. “We believe the SHCC will acknowledge the cooperation by the hospital, and thousands of people won’t be deprived of better health care services.”