Doctors protest attack on healthstaff at NICH

Say minor girl died due to unavailability of ventilator; FIR lodged against father of girl, others

KARACHI:

Doctors and other healthcare staff of the National Institute of Child Health protested on Monday against vandalism and assault on doctors by the family of an infant girl who had died at the health facility.

The protesting doctors and staff also boycotted the Out Patient Department (OPD) on the day. Eighteen-month-old minor girl, Sara Khan, had passed away on Saturday night, due to pneumonia. She had been under treatment at the paediatric ward at NICH. The protestors marched from Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre to NICH and shouted slogans calling for their demands to be met. The doctors condemned the attack on them and maintained that the baby had died due to the unavailability of a ventilator at the NICH, which was the Sindh government’s fault. Young Doctors Association (YDA) leader Dr Mehboob said that the lack of security arrangements for health officials is alarming.

On behalf of the YDA, he demanded the establishment of a Sindh Rangers check-post at the health facility to permanently resolve the issue. Or else they would boycott all services at hospitals, he warned. Later, the Grand Health Alliance presented their charter of demands before NICH Director Dr Jamal Raza. They stated that the NICH did not accept any of their demands, which included establishment of a Rangers’ picket, ending the contract with SNC security company, the suspension of a few officials from the administration department, increasing the number of ventilators and more. “We will continue to boycott the OPDs if our demands are not accepted,” he said. However, Dr Raza claimed that they had contacted Sindh Rangers officials and a picket would be established by the evening.

FIR lodged

Earlier on the day, Saddar Police had registered a case against the vandalism and attack on the hospital staff and launched investigations into the matter. The case was registered on behalf of a private security guard against the father of the deceased baby girl and others. According to the text of the FIR, the complainant, Fahad Younus, and another security guard, Sher Muhammad, were on duty with a lady security personnel Mariam Khan in the pediatric ward of NICH when the baby girl passed away.

Her father, Farhat Khan, called 25 individuals to the hospital, who assaulted lady doctors, paramedical staff and security guards and damaged doors, windows and furniture of the hospital. The FIR stated that Khan and his party left with Sara’s body without collecting her death certificate after causing all the damage.