Hospital check-up: Doctors not showing up at work to be suspended

KARACHI:

Sindh health minister Jam Mahtab Hussain Dahar visited Lyari General Hospital (LGH) on Friday, after which he expressed concern over the absence of doctors and paramedical staff and the lack of coordination between the facility and the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Medical College (SBBMC).

Dahar has ordered the hospital management to provide the list of staff, including doctors, who remain absent from duty. "No one has been suspended yet but a warning has been issued to absent doctors," said Dr Tarique, the personal secretary to the minister.

A senior medical officer told The Express Tribune that there are around a dozen doctors who have remained absent from duties for the last several months, adding that the health department has already been informed about their performance.

"Doctors are afraid of coming to Lyari," he explained. "There is no protection for medical staff and anyone can enter the facility with a gun. The roads are not safe yet," he added.

The minister asked the medical superintendent, Dr Abdul Aziz Soomro, to compile a list of doctors who weren't performing their duties. The minister, said an official of the health department, will take action after consulting the list and taking into account the doctors' reasons for absence. "The minister will visit the hospital again after a week," he added.

Another doctor said that the health department has never given attention to the only major health facility in Lyari. "Specialists don't prefer being posted here," he said, adding that senior doctors won't come to Lyari until the complete restoration of law and order.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2015.