SHC summons SHCC chief

SHCC chief to submit report relating to the death of nine-month-old Nashwa

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court ordered on Wednesday the chief of the Sindh Health Care Commission to personally appear before it along with a report relating to the recent incident of nine-month-old Nashwa’s death.

A two-member-bench, comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Agha Faisal, was hearing a plea regarding the poor performance of the SHCC after multiple incidents of medical negligence surfaced in the past few days.

Petitioner Advocate Asad Iftikhar maintained that the number of unregistered and substandard hospitals and clinics was increasing due to the negligence of the SHCC. The commission had also shown negligence in Nashwa’s case.

The petitioner added 95 nurses working at the Darul Sehat Hospital, where the infant was administered the wrong medication, were unregistered and untrained. The fine imposed on the hospital for this kind of serious negligence was only Rs500,000, the petitioner lamented.

The petitioner asked the court to direct the commission to submit its complete progress report. The commission is responsible for the monitoring of hospitals, clinics, laboratories and other medical centres.

The court sought a response from the Government of Sindh and other parties and ordered the SHCC chief to appear with the report on May 2.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2019.