Hospital denies seeking payment from victims

Doctors state six of the 18 wounded in blast brought in for medical aid are in ICU

The administration of Patel Hospital, where persons injured in the blast in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on Wednesday were brought for treatment, denied on Thursday allegations of demanding advance payment from the patients.

Addressing a press conference, the hospital's Dr Tariq Chundrigar termed the accusations "wrong and inappropriate."

"People injured in mishaps and such incidents are often brought to our hospital. This was not the first time," he clarified. "[Like other times], we did not ask for any payment to treat the injured and did not deny treatment [on this basis] to any of them."

Claiming he was unaware of the source of the accusation, Dr Chundrigar said, "If any of the hospital's staff had asked for payments due to ignorance, we would apologise but we have received no such complaints." He added that if any of the injured had paid for treatment, they may produce receipts as evidence.

He said they were prompt to start treatment, so much so that in treatment forms, they had filled "unidentified" in the field for the patient's name, not waiting for the provision of details. "Accusing us of demanding payment is complete injustice," he protested.

When asked why the Sindh Health Department had issued a notification stating that the government would bear treatment expenses, he expressed ignorance.

Also speaking on the occasion, Dr Siddique said the matter had been investigated and no evidence of the hospital asking for or collecting payments had surfaced. "We personally approached the families of the injured but none of them made any complaints of such nature."

On a different note, Dr Chundrigar said 18 injured persons were brought to the hospital. According to him, they provided necessary treatment to all the injured by 12.30pm on Wednesday with 12 of them discharged after receiving medical aid so far.

He said that at present six of the eight people under treatment were in the ICU, adding that they found debris on the injured persons' bodies and none of the injuries appeared to have been caused by explosive materials.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2020.