Young doctors resume work at BBH operation theatres

Doctors were demanding supplementary staff in the new emergency ward

RAWALPINDI: Young doctors on Thursday resumed their work at selective operation theatres in the emergency department of Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) after a meeting with the medical superintendent and the deputy commissioner.

Representatives of Young Doctors Association (YDA) had asked the administration of the hospital to provide the requisite staff for two newly established operation theatres in the emergency ward within a month.

Deputy Commissioner Talat Mahmood Gondal and Medical Superintendent Dr Arshad Ali Sabir had assured the young doctors that they would do their best to hire anaesthetists, nurses, and operation theatre (OT) technicians as soon as possible.

But when the officials failed to meet the deadline, the young doctors had stopped tending to patients at elective operation theatres for the past two days.



Talking to The Express Tribune, YDA Punjab Chairman Dr Haider Akhtar said that the hospital administration had not been appointing the required staff and was thus overburdening existing staff.

Dr Akhtar, an orthopaedic surgeon at the BBH, said that the new building of the emergency had started functioning some 20 months ago and two new OTs have recently been made functional there.

“BBH’s emergency works as the biggest trauma centre in the city with multiple cases of surgery every day. There are five OTs in total but only two had been functioning. The rise in emergency surgeries lead to a backlog for elective surgeries in the hospital,” he explained.

He added that YDA representatives had met the MS a few days ago and had asked him to expedite his efforts for hiring new staff but his discouraging response had forced them to stop attending elective OTs.

“On average, around 2,000 patients visit BBH’s emergency department every day. There are hundreds of cases related to surgery - mostly emergency surgeries. About 45 to 50 operations are carried out every day in BBH and the number could easily rise to 80 if all five OTs start functioning,” the YDA chairman said.

It may here be mentioned that hospital had hired people to fill the vacant posts around five months ago. The appointments were, however, cancelled after allegations of irregularities and corruption were raised over the appointment process.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2017.