On their own: At PIMS, patients yearn for doctors

Woman suffered ‘unbearable pain’ as hospital delayed surgery

ISLAMABAD: Shazia Sajid was brought to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) on Thursday afternoon in a critical condition after a gynaecologist in Rawalpindi treated her for stillbirth.

Following the devastating news, Shazia had to fight for her own life as she needed immediate surgery to remove the fetus from her womb. When she and her family reached Pims, they were told to wait at the department of obstetrics and gynaecology till a surgery was scheduled.

They ended up waiting for hours and hours. “Being diabetic, her condition kept worsening. For a moment she got a feeling that she would die soon,” said Tanveer Shah, Shazia’s brother-in-law.

He told The Express Tribune that she was checked by a doctor only once who informed them that the surgery would be done in an hour.

Later, they refused to carry out the surgery and kept on rescheduling it, he shared.

“At midnight when it became impossible for her to bear the pain, she came outside on the road in front of the department where her male family members were sitting. Crying, she pleaded to take her somewhere else otherwise she would die,” said Shah.

Moved by Shazia’s plea, her family members forced the duty staff to ‘do something’ but they received the standard reply in return.

“On Friday till 1pm she was left unattended. No doctor was listening to our plea. Later we approached a few influential people who asked the higher-ups of the hospital to help the patient and to our surprise within half an hour she was operated on,” said Shah.

A senior nurse at the department told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity that “Almost every day we witness such painful incidents where expectant mothers scream with pain and no one is there to attend them.”

She said a majority of senior gynaecologists usually visit the hospital for a short time and spend most of their day in private clinics or hospitals making more money.

When contacted, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University Vice-Chancellor Prof Javed Akram said he was very well aware of the issue.

“We are working on a project to establish private clinics of doctors within premises of the hospital so that they can work with more determination and give full time to patients visiting or admitted in the hospital,” he said.

Talking about staff shortage, he said vacancies have been advertised against 920 vacant posts in various departments and hopefully the situation will improve soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2015.