SHC seeks report of LUMHS employees' private healthcare

Court chides employees for getting treatment from private hospitals at varsity's expense

HYDERABAD: The professors and doctors of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro, get medical treatment for themselves and their families from private hospitals.

The Sindh High Court (SHC) made this observation on Monday and ordered LUMHS, which is the largest medical university in Sindh outside Karachi with two teaching hospitals, to submit five-year details of the medical bills claimed by its employees.

A two-judge bench, comprising Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Fahim Ahmed Siddiqi, gave two weeks to the varsity for compliance. The entire record of the medical treatment, blood tests and surgeries, which the employees of LUMHS underwent in private hospitals on the varsity's expenses, will have to be submitted.



The university will also have to provide names of the private hospitals that are on its panel and the record as to which employee went for the treatment to which hospital. "... the professors, doctors and other employees who are working in medical universities in the public sector, they have no faith on their hands [hospitals] for treatment, surgeries and medical tests," the judges observed. "... they are responsible to develop the trust and faith of the people, which cannot be expected if they themselves avoid their own treatment in the institution, being run by themselves."

The court also barred LUMHS from permitting its employees to receive medical treatment at its expense from private hospitals, except for the treatments and the tests which are not available in the varsity's teaching hospitals.

The order came in a petition filed by Advocate Ejaz Aiwan who complained about lack of facilities at the district hospital Jamshoro. The medical superintendent (MS), Dr Abdul Akram Qureshi, apprised the court that only three medical wards were functioning at the hospital which is awaiting handover of a new hospital building. The bench expressed displeasure and ordered the health secretary to submit reply explaining how such a hospital, which has only three wards, can be given the status of a district hospital.



Complaining about the works and services department, the MS informed the court that the new building for the hospital was supposed to be completed in 2012, adding that new medical equipment and machinery for the hospital was also purchased in 2012.

The bench observed that the equipment, which was bought in 2012, had not been used for around five years and even its warranty may have expired by now.

The MS also informed the court that so far Sindh Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has conducted three separate inquiries regarding purchase of equipment and delay in construction of the new hospital building. The SHC ordered ACE chairperson to submit reports of all the three inquiries and assigned the responsibility of examining these reports to Legal Deputy Director Rizwan Ahmed Termizi.

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