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.
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