Mithi hospital MS, gynaecologist face action

KARACHI: The Sindh Health Department’s inquiry committee has recommended action against the medical superintendent (MS) and female gynaecologist of Civil Hospital, Mithi, for their failure to immediately treat a bleeding pregnant woman from Chachro, who lost her baby in a botched-up delivery procedure at a charity hospital.

The Civil Hospital has no blood bank while its diagnostic lab is also in a poor shape, an inquiry committee member told The News, raising the question how can a tertiary-care health facility work without a blood bank.

The 35-year-old woman from Chachro was taken to a charity hospital in the locality for delivery on June 16, where her baby’s head was decapitated during childbirth. She was sent to the Civil Hospital, Mithi, with the head of her male fetus inside her womb.

A health department official told The News that an inquiry committee headed by Dr Khursheed Qureshi, Additional Director General Health, Hyderabad, and comprising Dr Azra Aslam, Chief Gynecologist at SG Hospital, Shah Bhittai, Latifabad, Hyderabad, and Dr Greesh Kumar, District Health Officer, Tharparkar, interviewed dozens of officials in two days and presented its recommendations to the department.

The official said the committee has recommended action against the administration and staff of the charity hospital where untrained midwives messed up the delivery procedure. "The inquiry committee has also recommended action against the staff of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUKHS), Hospital, Jamshoro, who photographed the decapitated head of the baby and the pregnant lady and then posted these pictures on social media platforms,” the official added.

The official said the missionary hospital’s two midwives tried to perform the delivery as there was no gynaecologist at any private or public hospital, including Taluka Hospital, Chachro. “The charity hospital staff then sent the woman to Mithi Civil Hospital in private transport though she was bleeding and in extreme pain”, the committee found, and added that no ambulance was arranged by the missionary hospital despite availability of four public ambulances in the Taluka hospital.

Since Civil Hospital, Mithi, doesn’t have any blood bank, its gynaecologist asked the woman’s family to arrange A negative blood for the surgery, the inquiry committee noted, and recommended action against the gynaecologist and medical superintendent.

On unavailability of gynaecologists in Chachro and other small towns of Tharparkar, the inquiry committee recommended hiring of gynaecologists for these areas, besides asking the department to ensuring availability of the ambulances in the district’s remote areas.

The committee also recommended hiring lady health workers (LHWs) in the uncovered areas to avoid such incidents in the future, ensuring availability of surgeon, gynecologist and ambulance at the charity hospital round the clock.

The committee also called for improving the condition of Taluka Hospital, Chachro, appointing a permanent gynaecologist and women medical officers, setting up a blood bank and upgrading the diagnostic laboratory at the Civil Hospital, Mithi. The committee also called for launching an awareness campaign for pregnant women in Tharparkar.

Meanwhile, Sindh Healthcare Commission’s CEO Dr Ahson Qavi told reporters that the commission could not act against any health facility on its own. Though the inquiry committee has done it job, the commission would wait for the complainant or her relatives to file a complaint so that it could act, Dr Qavi added.