Compensation sought for ATH eye victims
Compensation has been demanded those patients who lost their sight after being incorrectly administered an injection at the Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH). Should the government fail to comply, a wheel jam and shutter down strike across Abbottabad will be held from September 13.
This was stated by the Tehreek-e-Suba Hazara Secretary-General and Save Abbottabad Tehreek Chairman Sardar Fida Hussain on Wednesday while addressing a news conference at his residence after a grand jirga comprising political and religious parties.
Flanked by Awami National Party’s (ANP) Shahid Raza, Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Sardar Abrar, Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) Amjad Khan, and local transport union’s Sajjad Ahmed, Hussain said that as many as nine people had completely lost their eyesight at the eye ward of the hospital due to the negligence of doctors and staff there.
He added that the Ayub Medical Teaching Institution Medical Director Dr Ahsan Aurangzeb had confirmed the incident in a video message and constituted an inquiry committee to probe the incident. Samples from the injections were sent to a laboratory for tests but the matter appears to have been brushed under the carpet.
He demanded that compensation worth Rs20 million should be paid to each patient who has lost their eyesight besides the immediate removal of all senior managers who were posted in the institution against merit and taking action against those involved.
Hussain further asked AMTI’s board to step down and a new board should be constituted where people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), especially Hazara, are included.
Further, the National Highway Authority (NHA) was asked to clarify its position about the allocation of Rs400 crore rupees for the carpeting and widening of the Karakoram Highway (KKH).
Published in The Express Tribune, September 3rd, 2020.