Doctors’ boycott: Death toll in hospital reaches 38 in one week

Doctors demand recovery of the 11-year-old kidnapped son of Dr Shamsuddin Shaikh.

HYDERABAD:

The doctors’ boycott at the Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences Hospital, Benazirabad, entered the seventh day on Friday despite acourt notice.

This lack of doctors have brought deaths of two more children, eight months old Mumtaz and three years old Saleem, who died at the 950-bed hospital taking the death toll to 38 in one week. The doctor’s have been protesting to build pressure on the police to recover the 11-year-old kidnapped son of Dr Shamsuddin Shaikh, the dean of the faculty of medicine.

On Friday, a lawyer belonging to the district bar association filed a human rights plea at the district and sessions court pleading for an end to the suspension of services at the hospital and for action against medical officers under Sindh Civil Services Act 1973. The court ordered the police to produce the hospital’s medical superintendent Dr Hashim Langha on August 24. According to hospital sources, only the emergency unit of the hospital is providing services while the doctors have boycotted work at the out-patients and surgery wards. Dr Langha could not be contacted for his version.

The doctors, led by Dr Ishaque Channar and Dr Ghulam Hyder Memon on Friday staged a demonstration outside Zardari House in Benazirabad. They also submitted a memorandum warning that the hospital will be locked completely if Shujauddin was not recovered. Meanwhile, MNA Faryal Talpur contacted Dr Shaikh and assured him of all possible help.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2013.