Rights and wrongs: Young doctors stop working at Children’s Hospital ward

Dean says YDA men are levelling false allegations.

LAHORE:

Several medical officers and post-graduate trainees at the Gastro Ward of Children’s Hospital have stopped working, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Gastroenterology and hepatology patients from across the country are treated at the ward.

According to the hospital administration, the problem started after a Young Doctors’ Association member was told to work for 24 additional hours for showing negligence on duty.

YDA office-bearers say they are highlighting “serious misappropriations” at the ward.



“Private patients are being treated at the ward at the hospital’s expense. Fees are charged for endoscopy and colonoscopy but the money goes to the professor [Huma Cheema, head of the ward] and some of her colleagues,” said YDA Children’s Hospital president Saud.

“Patients who cannot afford the fees are asked to wait for a year for an endoscopy and four months for a colonoscopy.”

He said two rooms in the ward were designated for private patients but the fee had not been going to the hospital’s account.

“Milk is sold in the ward in violation of hospital’s policy. We have stopped working on account of these wrongdoings.”

Prof Cheema denied the allegations.

She said she had not been working for any private hospital. She also said she had established the ward, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons had endorsed it for its fellowship programme.

“Quite often there are three patients on one bed in this 20-bed unit. Do you think the affluent will like put up with such treatment?”

“Why would I prefer endoscopies of private patients here when I can earn three times the amount at a private hospital?” she said.

She said Saud had been expelled from Faisalabad’s Allied Hospital. She also said he had failed the FCPS II examinations several times.



“He turned against me after I accepted a fellow from Faisalabad for training and allotted him a room against his [Saud’s] will,” she said.

She said YDA member had stopped working after one of their colleagues was punished on account of negligence.

She said in the last 18 months, 22 liver transplants had been performed using donated funds. “That is what we are doing for the poor. If there is any misappropriation as they allege, they must produce evidence,” Cheema said.

She said the ‘milk’ being sold in the ward was not available in the market.

“It is a medicine for the ailing kids. We keep it at the ward and doctors know they can use it when needed,” she said.

Institute of Child Health Dean Masood Sadiq said Cheema was a caring doctor.

“YDA men are harming the medical profession by leveling such allegations.” He said no private patient had been treated at the hospital.

He said withdrawing services from the ward was not justified. He said the hospital administration had tried negotiating with the YDA because it did not want the hospital shut down.

Children’s Hospital Medical Director Ahsan Waheed Rathore said there was no truth in the allegations levelled by the YDA.

“They should perform their duties honestly. We cannot tolerate negligence. Huma did the right thing by punishing a [negligent] doctor.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2014.