Healthcare: Poor state of Quetta hospital irks SC

Top court summons Balochistan’s secretary health.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court summoned on Tuesday Balochistan’s health secretary over poor hygiene and inadequate facilities at the Sandeman Provincial Hospital in Quetta.

The three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, expressed annoyance over the poor conditions at the hospital and observed the court “cannot allow children to die”.

The CJP had taken suo mou notice on a report submitted through the Balochistan High Court’s registrar.

The BHC registrar stated he inspected various wards, including pediatric wards where he found newborn babies in ICU in incubators while seven children between two and seven years of age were found to be admitted to the general pediatric ward.

The registrar also cited Medical Superintendent Abdul Rehman and other officials, who agreed most of these children suffered from tuberculosis and needed anti-TB treatment, which was not available in the hospital pharmacy or in the market.

The MS said the Balochistan Medical Complex Hospital in Quetta had a desk of TB Control Programme and whenever they needed such medicines, they contacted officials of the BMC.

As far as recent deaths of five or six children were concerned, there was no hospital record and no complaint was filed by any person, the report said.

Concerning the overall condition at the SPH, the report said that the hospital’s hygiene was poor and so was the quality of basic facilities being provided to patients.

During the hearing, the chief justice asked Additional Attorney-General Rana Waqar and AAG Balochistan Ayyaz Swatti why medicines were not being provided to patients because of which children were dying.

Rana Waqar said medicines were being supplied to Balochistan from Punjab. But the AAG Balochistan said the province was not getting them.

The SC chief justice said the provincial authorities should arrange medicines from different sources.

He asked why the secretary health did not appear before the court. The AAG Balochistan informed the apex court that the health secretary was abroad.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 8^th, 2016.