LAHORE:A woman delivered a baby in the washroom of Jinnah Hospital Lahore in the wee hours of Thursday after being refused admission in final moments of her labour.
According to details, a pregnant woman, Asifa Hammad, wife of Hammad, went in throes and was brought to Labour Room of Jinnah Hospital for childbirth, but the duty doctors allegedly refused to admit the patient for delivery.
Hammad, patient’s husband, in his application to the Garden Town police alleged that his wife delivered the baby in a washroom of Jinnah Hospital at around 2:26am on Thursday after the duty doctors refused to admit the patient to conduct the delivery.
“The lady doctors on duty, including Senior Registrar Dr Jawaria, Dr Madiha, Dr Zara and Dr Marsh, refused to admit his wife for delivery despite being a registered patient in the Gynae Department,” he told the media, saying that his wife regularly got herself examined at the hospital during the pregnancy. He said that his wife was also a patient of hepatitis.
As he mentioned the doctors’ names in his application to the police, he alleged that the doctors asked him to get his wife’s tests conducted from a certain private lab, which he was unable to afford. “The lab demanded Rs.11,500 for the tests,” Hammad, a driver by profession, said. “Although the tests should have been conducted in the hospital, yet I asked the doctors if he could get the tests done from another private lab charging Rs.5,000,” he informed, alleging that the doctors refused to accept and asked the guards to get them off from their sight.
“As the guards pushed us out of the Labour Department, he said, they returned but the extreme labour pain started before they reached the main gate of the hospital. “We immediately rushed her to a nearby washroom, where some women present there helped her in delivering the baby,” he expressed his anguish, saying the head of the baby was also hit the floor and got injured.
Later, Hammad said, he called the police on 15 and told the entire episode. The police immediately reached the hospital and took them to the doctors, nominated in the application, which confirmed Hammad’s allegation of refusal of admission. The police also called the medical superintendent.
The newly-appointed MS Dr Yahya Sultan took strong notice of the incident and formulated an inquiry committee comprising two associate professors and a nursing superintendent to conduct a detailed investigation into the incident, fix the responsibility and present the report within 24 hours. “A strict action will be taken against the responsible,” he assured the family and the police, and banned prescribing all diagnostic tests from outside the hospital.
He also issued orders for admitting the mother and the newborn for post-delivery care. The mother and child are stated to be in stable condition.
