Medical care: Displaced families protest against hospital’s administration

Demonstrators claim three women have died due to negligence of DHQ medical staff.

BANNU:

Scores of displaced people protested against the administration of the District Headquarters Hospital, Bannu on Friday, accusing the hospital staff of negligence which led to the demise of three women.

Led by Dilawar Khan, the brother-in-law of one of the deceased woman, Mursalina Bibi, several displaced persons and relatives of the deceased woman gathered at Bannu-DI Khan Road and blocked it for several hours in protest. They chanted slogans against the doctors as well as the administration of the district hospital.

According to Dilawar, Mursalina Bibi ingested expired medicine by mistake on Thursday night. The family took her to the DHQ Hospital around 3am on Friday, however, no medical staff was available to treat her and she died.

Dilawar added that two other women had also died at the hospital earlier under similar circumstances.

Another protester, Sohail Khan, a teacher at Government High School for Boys, Bannu, said several patients suffering from food poisoning and diarrhoea have been taken to the hospital in the last few days but the doctors do not treat them.

According to Sohail, doctors refer such patients to the Women and Children Hospital instead. The protesters blocked the road for over three hours before the police arrived and dispersed them.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2014.