BBH issues fresh SOP after baby-swapping incident

The  Benazir  Bhutto Hospital (BBH) has issued a fresh standard operating procedure  (SOP)  for  newborns  after  a  baby-swapping incident last week.

Interestingly,  the  BBH  administration continues to  wait  for  the  police  to  show  up  for  conducting  the  DNA  test  of  the  two  babies — a boy and a girl, who  had  been  swapped  mistakenly — despite the fact that the latter made it clear that it was neither a police case nor an FIR had been registered.

The two newborns were later admitted to the hospital’s nursery while both the  anxious  parents  were  waiting  for  their  genetic  test for the last one week.

According to the new SOP,  as  soon as a baby  is  born, a senior doctor will inform parents outside the  labour  room  instead  of  a  nurse. 

Additionally,  CCTV  cameras  will  be  installed in the waiting area outside  the  labour  room. According to the SOP, the newborn’s birth will be recorded in a register with a picture of the baby.

Sources said that the DNA test issue of the swapped newborns remains unresolved despite the  passage  of  one  week.  Hospital  sources  told  The Express Tribune that the new  SOP  has  been  issued  in  response  to  the  baby-swapping  incident  at  the  hospital due to the alleged negligence of the nurses on duty.

Currently, the sources said, both  the  newborns  were admitted to the hospital’s nursery as the hospital administration could not begin the DNA test.Earlier,  police  said  that  
the  newborns’  DNA  test  was an internal matter of the hospital.

They  said  that  no  crime has  been  committed in the  instant  case, nor an FIR has been  registered in order  to  perform  the  DNA test under police supervision BBH  Medical Superintendent Dr Sohail could  not  be  reached  for  comment  on  the  delay  in  conducting the DNA test to determine the identities of both newborns.

Sources  said  that  since  the  case  is  sensitive  in nature, the parents’ identities  have been  kept confidential.

The hospital administration has also formed a five-member  committee to investigate the incident, and in case the staff’s carelessness is proven, strict action would be taken against them.

Last month, three-month-old Musa Aftab was  kidnapped  from  the  OPD of the Benazir Bhutto Hospital after his mother, Saima Noreen, handed over him to her 10-year-old daughter  Ayesha  Fatima  before she went for a check-up.Malik Aftab, the father of the kidnapped child, said that  after  his  wife  came  out after her check-up, she found her son missing and their daughter said that a woman took the baby with her and disappeared.

Later,  the police,  with  the  help  of  intelligence  agencies, raided a house in the Morgah area and safely recovered the child and arrested  the  woman  along  with her accomplice. The child was later handed over to his parents.

The BBH fact-finding committee, which was formed after the incident, said that the kidnapping  of  the  child did not prove any negligence on the part of the hospital administration.