Medical negligence case: Government stopping police from closing investigation, says YDA

Health Dept says YDA should be making its case in court, not the press.

LAHORE:

The Punjab government has stopped the police from closing the investigation into an alleged case of medical negligence at Mayo Hospital even though the evidence points to a natural death, according to the Young Doctors Association (YDA) Pakistan.

The YDA was referring to the arrest of four doctors over the death of an infant at Mayo Hospital some seven weeks ago during a strike at public hospitals in the city. The case is being heard at the Lahore High Court. The prosecution has alleged that the doctors pulled a drip from the child and refused him treatment.

The YDA said in a statement on Monday, signed by 12 office-bearers, that the autopsy report of the child showed that he had died a natural death. The YDA officials said that the doctors on duty at the time had worked for six hours trying to save his life. The child had died of heart failure.

“His liver size had increased by 6cm, the heart size had also increased and there was water in both his lungs,” said the YDA statement. “There was no negligence on the part of doctors and no drip was removed. But the police have been unable to complete the investigation in the last 48 days because the government [through the] Prosecution Department has directed them to delay the matter.”

The YDA officials said that the police should not have registered a murder case against the doctors in the first instance, as under the Punjab Healthcare Commission Act of 2010, any alleged cases of medical negligence were to be referred to the Healthcare Commission and not the police.

YDA officials Dr Rana Sohail, Dr Talha Sherwani, Dr Ghulam Qasim, Dr Murtaza Baloch, Dr Muhammad Khawar Khan, Dr Shahid Dreshik, Dr Waqas Gondal, Dr Shehzad, Dr Asim, Dr Shams, Dr Muhammad Azhar and Dr Muhammad Amjad appealed to the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the matter.

A senior Health Department official said the matter was sub-judice and if the YDA felt the government was stopping the police from closing the investigation, it was free to tell the trial court. “They should take this plea to the court rather than issue press statements,” he said.

DIG (Investigations) Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmad rejected the YDA allegations. “We are not being pressured by the Punjab government in any way. The investigation will be done on merit,” he said.

Asked how much longer the investigation would take, he said: “We are doing it speedily and will hopefully complete it very soon.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2012.